Indianoil, ONGC, Oil India Named By US Govt For Iran Ties

All the three firms gave similar response to US GAO saying the "exploration contract expired in 2009" and that they had "not carried out any activity after 2007 in the Farsi Block".

ONGC holds the 40 per cent stake in Farsi through its overseas investment arm, ONGC Videsh Ltd.

After finding its name in on the list of entities engaged with Iran in three consecutive reports between 2010 and 2012, OVL stopped mentioning the Farsi stake in its annual report, resulting in its name being withdrawn.

Besides OVL, US GAO had also withdrawn Petronet LNG Ltd as well as Hinduja Group firm Ashok Leyland Project Services from the list saying "there were no open-source reports of the firms conducting commercial activity in Iran".

According to GAO, the US has not imposed sanctions on any firm for their Iran energy ties since 1998.

The US and its allies have pursued the sanctions route to isolate Iran over its alleged nuclear programme.

OVL, IOC and OIL explored for oil and gas in Iran's Farsi block and proposed investing $5.5 billion to produce gas from the 21.68 trillion cubic foot discovery they made in the offshore area located near the Saudi Arabian border.

They, however, haven't invested in the development due to differences over the contract with the Iranian government.
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