SCI to pick up 5% in ONGC marine venture

SHIPPING UPDATE

Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) has decided to pick up 5 per cent stake in a marine joint venture to be floated by the Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

"Our board has approved the proposal to pick up a 5 per cent stake. We will pick up equity when the company is formed. ONGC wants to hold 26 per cent stake in the venture," SCI chairman and managing director P K Srivastava said.

The company is being structured as a non-government PSU in which all the state-owned companies combined will hold a maximum of 49 per cent. The balance 51 per cent stake will be held by the private sector.

"Once you are a government company, you have many advantages but you also have many constraints," Srivastava explained. The marine joint venture is the brainchild of ONGC.

The joint venture company will own, operate, and charter a wide range of offshore floating units for servicing the oil & gas industry's requirement s worldwide.

The joint venture represents further expansion of the co-operation between SCI and ONGC. About a year back, SCI secured the operations and maintenance contract for 16 ONGC offshore supply vessels for two and a half years on a cost plus basis.