ONGC bags 25% stake in Sudan oil field

Monday, 10 March 2003, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: Indian firm Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Videsh Ltd. has finalised a deal to take over Canadian company Talisman Energy's 25 percent stake in an oil field in Sudan. "We are very happy the deal has been finalised and India has become a member of Sudan's energy sector with a 25 percent stake in the Greater Nile Oil Project," Sudanese Ambassador Abdal Mahmood Abdal Haleem Mohammad told IANS Monday. Haleem said the Greater Nile Oil Project involves a producing field that will provide the country around three million tonnes of crude oil per annum. The deal had been held up since August last year to give other stakeholders in the project time to exercise their contractual first right to buy or refuse the stake. The partners are the Chinese National Petroleum Company, with a 40 percent stake, the Malaysian state-owned firm Petronas (30 percent) and the Sudan National Oil Company (five percent). Greater Nile Oil Project consists of four blocks in the Muglad Basin and a 1,500 km pipeline from the producing fields to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. It currently produces 12 million tonnes of oil annually (240,000 barrels per day) from the 600-1200 million barrel Heglig and Unity fields. The oilfield has reserves of over 150 million tonnes with a potential of even more oil and gas in the block. The new equity stake by ONGC Videsh has secured for India about three million tonnes of crude oil a year from August 31. ONGC Videsh had already credited its share of revenue from the field to its account, beginning from September 1 last year. The firm had to make interest payment on the sale price of $720 million, frozen from August 31, taking the total deal cost to around $750 million. "With the finalisation of this deal, we expect in the coming days more Indian major companies in different sectors to seek opportunities in Sudan. The signal given by ONGC Videsh is very significant. We expect more companies in fields like power, refineries, infrastructure and roads," said Mohammad. The Sudanese envoy said his country expected India to "take more blocks in undiscovered fields, while using its technical know-how to increase production in the Greater Nile project". ONGC Videsh has already put in place a team in Sudan to oversee its operations in the field and is exploring the prospects of shipping the light crude oil produced to India.
Source: IANS