The central government has rejected the proposal of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to form a joint venture with UK's British Gas for exploration in three deep-sea blocks allotted to it, and has decided to offer the blocks afresh in the next round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP)."It has been decided to offer these blocks in the ensuing rounds of NELP," Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.ONGC had roped in BG as partner for the three Krishna-Godavari basin blocks it had won on nomination basis a few years back. However, the validity of the exploration licence of the three blocks has either already expired or would expire next year prompting the government to take back the blocks.Patel said ONGC was, in April 2000, given NELP terms to enable it to seek strategic alliances to explore and develop six deep-sea blocks, which included the three blocks in the Krishna Godavari basin - KG-OS-DW, KG-OS-DW-Extn and KG-OS-DW-III."The validity of licence in respect of one of these three blocks has already expired while the other two blocks are due to expire in January and May, 2007," he said.
