Norway firm offers OVL stake in Angolan block

Norway's Norsk Hydro has offered ONGC Videsh (OVL) stakes in an oil block in Angola and an Iranian oilfield, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel said today.

"Norsk Hydro has agreed for participation of OVL in deepwater Block 34 in Angola, in which it has 50 per cent participation interest," he said at the conclusion of two-day meeting of Indo-Norway joint working group on hydrocarbon.

Petrobras of Brazil is Norsk Hydro's partner in Block 34, where first few wells have shown presence of no hydrocarbon.

Patel said Norsk Hydro has offered OVL a part of its 50 per cent stake in the onshore Aranan field in Iran, which lies adjacent to a discovered oilfield. Norsk Hydro is the service contract of the Aranan field, where the remaining interest is held by National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

OVL, on its part, has offered Norsk Hydro participation in two deep water exploratory block in Cuba, he said. OVL has 100 per cent interest in Block 34 and 35 in Cuba.

Patel said Norsk Hydro had agreed to provide detailed exploration technology for development of thin oil rim of Vasai East and Bassin field in Mumbai offshore.

It has also agreed to provide assistance for the development of Oil and Natural Gas Corp's (ONGC) Krishna Godavari basin fields on service contract basis.

D N Narasimha Raju, joint secretary - exploration, ministry of petroleum and natural gas said state-run GAIL (India) Ltd, has evinced interest in sourcing liquefied natural gas (LNG) and taking equity stake in LNG projects in Norway.

Norway's Minister for Petroleum and Energy Odd Roger Enokfen said there existed tremendous scope for cooperation between the companies from the two countries in field of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques, deepwater exploration, training and research and development.

Raju said while GAIL was keen on sourcing technology to lay deepsea pipelines and gas-to-liquid technology, ONGC wanted Norway to help it map and remove the debries of the last year's fire devastated platform in the Mumbai High field. ONGC also wanted to source temporary production system, FPSO from Norway.

Minutes of the 3rd Indo-Norway Joint Working Group of Hydrocarbons was signed by Raju and Odd Sverre Haraldsen, Director General, Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, Norway.