ONGC may sell GAIL stake: Raha

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is exploring the possibility of selling its stake in GAIL (India) Ltd. Stating this on Friday, ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Subir Raha said the PSU might, however, hold on to its stake in Indian Oil.

Raha said there was no synergy in operation between ONGC and GAIL. "But there is a fair amount of co-operation with Indian Oil, as both companies exchange directors on their boards," he added. ONGC has about 9.11 per cent stake in Indian Oil and 4.83 per cent stake in GAIL.

Talking about acquiring stakes in overseas oil blocks, Raha said ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) was out of the race for picking up 90 per cent holding in two Nigerian blocks due to the government's delay in approving the plan. He said Nigeria was now offering a much lower stake.

Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said on Friday that the delay in approval was due to doubts regarding the size of the investment. Last month, the Cabinet had deferred a decision to allow OVL to pick up stake in two exploration blocks in Nigeria, that it had earlier lost out to a Korean firm despite being the highest bidder.

Raha added that the company was in talks to buy British firm Cairn Energy's Indian assets, including an oil field in Rajasthan that was pegged to have an annual production capacity of 1 billion barrels of oil.

On the resumption of normal production from the Bombay High fields after last year's fire accident, Raha said about 250,000 barrels per day of output was expected by March, which would go up to 300,000 barrels per day by the end of 2006-07.