ONGC's overseas investment arm, ONGC Videsh (OVL), has been shortlisted to bid for deepwater blocks in Angola. Angola is offering nine offshore blocks and one onshore block for exploration to global oil companies. The auction of the blocks will begin in September, once elections in the south-west African nation are over.
"Angola has prequalified OVL to bid as an operator in deepwater blocks. This was conveyed to us during our meeting with officials in the Angolan oil ministry on Wednesday in Madrid," said a senior official in India's petroleum ministry, who is a part of the Indian delegation attending the World Petroleum Congress in Madrid. OVL was recently prequalified to develop oil fields in Iraq as well. The company has interests in 38 oil assets in 18 countries.
India is seeking to buy oil assets across the world as production from the country's ageing oil fields remain stagnant and demand grows at over 10 per cent. The Indian official also said Petroleum Minister Murli Deora had offered to give financial assistance to Angola to develop infrastructure such as railways and roads in the African nation, where oil constitutes 90 per cent of country's export revenues.
India is pledging similar investments in oil-rich Nigeria and Sudan. In 2004, India had promised $200 million to lay a rail line in Angola as a part of a deal for a stake in a discovered oil field in the African nation.
China, however, walked away with the deal after it offered $2 billion aid for a variety of projects in Angola.
OVL also proposes to form a joint venture with Angolan national oil company, Sonangol, to hunt for oil and gas assets in the world.
Countries such as Russia and Venezuela are nationalising their oil assets while strife in other countries such as Iraq and Nigeria is not stopping India from searching for oil in these countries. "It is a question of oil. We have to brave all situations to get as large a share of it as we can," said a senior ONGC official.
Meanwhile, Cuba has also invited Indian companies to invest in a new 7.5 mtpa refinery on the west coast of the country, the petroleum ministry said in a statement. Cuba's Minister of Basic Industry Yadira Garcia Vera met Petroleum Minister Deora on Wednesday in Madrid and said Indian companies would also be welcome to invest in expanding capacity and upgrading existing refineries in the Central American country.
Also read: ONGC firm in shortlist for Iraq oil field development
