ONGC bids for 15% of Yukos

Negotiations also on to pick up stake in oil fields in Ecuador

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) today said it was in talks for picking up stake in the assets of Russian oil major Yukos. The company is also in the race for picking up Canadian firm Encana's stake in a cluster of oil fields in Ecuador.

"We are in touch with the concerned Russian entities," ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Subir Raha told reporters. He, however, declined to give details.

The public sector company has sought government permission to bid for acquiring 15 per cent stake in Yuganskneftegaz, the main production unit of Yukos, which has now been taken over by Rosneft.

Raha said ONGC was also pursuing other opportunities in Russia, including Sakhlain-3. ONGC is a partner with Rosneft in the $ 4.5-billion Exxon Mobil-led Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project off Siberia's coast.

"ONGC has an agreement with Rosneft (which acquired Yuganskneftegas) and it may farm into one of the oil fields of Yuganskneftegaz," a senior company executive said.

Russia had stated Yuganskneftegas assets will be spun off into a new state company that will possibly bring in Chinese investment.

ONGC Videsh Ltd, the company's foreign arm, has also bid for Encana's stake in the Amazon blocks 14, 17 and Tarapoa, with combined output of 66,891 barrels of oil per day.

ONGC Videsh is pitched against Chinese firm Petro China for the Encana assets. "We have bid (for Encana oil fields). As we understand from reports, there are three companies in the race, one of them being a western oil company," he said but refused to divulge details of the bid.

Encana owns a 36.26 per cent stake in a new 450,000-barrels-per-day heavy crude pipeline from the Amazon oil blocks to the Pacific coast, and has reserved space to ship more than 108,000 barrels per day.

It also owns a 40 per cent stake in oil block 15, operated by Occidental Petroleum Corp. Ecuador has threatened to withdraw Occidental's contract for awarding this stake without permission from the authorities.

Raha said the company had not taken a view on whether to buy out US energy firm Unocal, which is up for sale.

ONGC Videsh has operations in 10 countries including Vietnam, Russia, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Myanmar and Australia, and has the backing of the oil ministry, which wants the company to spend at least $1 billion a year to acquire foreign operations.

Petrotech from Jan 15

Within 10 days of the Asian roundtable, the oil and gas sector will be seeing key players converging for another major event in the Capital. The global petroleum conclave, Petrotech 2005, starting January 15 is expected to go beyond the diplomacies and focus on commerce.

Petrotech will also extend India's bilateral discussions with Eqaudor and Russia, which are expected to be held simultaneously.

It will also be used for launching roadshows for the fifth round of bidding for 20 oil and gas blocks under the New Exploration and Licensing Policy (NELP V).

Among the 200 delegates expected for the five-day event will be representatives from countries like Senegal, Israel, Serbia, Poland, Norway and France. The conference would focus on business-to-business interactions. The event will be hosted by the ONGC and  Petronet LNG Ltd.