No plan to hive-off OVL from ONGC: Deora

Petroleum Minister Murli Deora today denied any move to hive-off ONGC Videsh (OVL) from its parent company Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) saying the present arrangement of letting the subsidiary company scout for overseas oil and gas assets was working well.

"No, I don't think so," Deora said when quizzed about a reported move to separate OVL from ONGC.

Petroleum Secretary M S Srinivasan said: "Nothing (to this effect) is under consideration. Existing arrangement is working very well, and we have no division of opinion on this."

Finance Minister P Chidambaram is reported to have suggested that OVL should raise its own resources for acquisition of oil and gas assets abroad instead of the present practice of borrowing money from ONGC.

To this, the petroleum ministry had stated that OVL derives a lot of strength from being part of India's most valuable firm, and the country's second highest profit-making entity. "The matter was closed after this clarification," a source privy to the discussions said.