ONGC gets 1st shipment of Russian crude

Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has received the first shipment of Sakhalin-I crude oil from Russia at its subsidiary Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL).

"Tanker Viktor Titov has arrived at the Mangalore port. A formal function marking the arrival of 1,00,000 tonne of crude from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk will be held on Saturday," a company official said.

ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of ONGC, holds 20% stake in the Sakhalin-I project, which is operated by ExxonMobil.

"Our entitlement from Sakhalin-I is three parcels of 7,00,000 barrels each between October-December. The first cargo will be processed at MRPL while the two others would be sold to ExxonMobil," he said.

ExxonMobil holds 30% of Sakhalin-I with the remaining equity owned by Russia's Rosneft (20%) and Japan's Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development Co (30%). The project started in October 2005 and is currently producing around 50,000 barrels per day.

The official said OVL will get 2.4 million tonne crude in 2007 from Sakhalin-I in lieu of its 20% stake in the project. Sakhalin-I project will reach the peak rate of 12 million tonne per year once a new onshore crude processing unit is commissioned in December.

OVL, which has 24 properties in 14 countries, has only shipped part of its share from the Greater Nile Oil Project in Sudan. It shipped 2,56,000 tonne crude oil from its Sudan property to India in 2005-06.