5 Indian firms under U.S. Govt scanner
Monday, 26 April 2010, 23:10 IST   |    3 Comments
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5 Indian firms under U.S. Govt scanner
New Delhi: It might be an another twist in India - U.S. relation, as the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) made public a report naming the five Indian public companies as part of a list of 41 foreign firms helping Iran develop its oil and gas sector. This announcement came after House of Representatives voted to fasten the process of reconciling its anti-Iran bill with the version passed by the Senate. The companies which featured in the list are Indian Oil, Oil and Natural Gas, ONGC Videsh (OVL), Oil India and the government-sponsored private company, Petronet LNG. The U.S. government is yet to get any reply from all these firms. According to the report, IOC, OVL, OIL and ONGC are engaged in the development of the Farzad-B natural gasfield in the Farsi block and South Pars assets with an estimated investment of $5 billion. The U.K. based Hinduja Group, which is also listed, is also part of one of the South Pars projects with ONGC, but that relationship has still to gain stability. The other major Oil and Gas Company in India, Reliance Industries, which was was one of Iran's main suppliers of petrol and diesel till 2009, is not part of the list, as it has not taken up any infrastructure project since long. Though Indian Government may be silent till now, but it would be a huge task before Manmohan Singh led Government to find out the solution. Silence can't be an option in the face of attempts to sanction major public sector giants for investing in Iran or selling it refined products, as Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited did in 2008.

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