ONGC eyes operatorship of two Venezuela oil blocks

New Delhi: India's top explorer, Oil and Natural Gas ​Corp (ONGC), hopes to soon ​sign agreements with Venezuela to operate two oil ​blocks under the South American nation's new petroleum law, its finance chief said on Wednesday.

State-run ONGC, through its overseas investment arm ONGC Videsh, holds a ‌40% stake ⁠in ⁠the San Cristobal field and, along with other Indian companies, an 18% ​stake in the Carabobo-1 project.

Also Read: Big bets, bigger risks: Why US oil majors are holding back in Venezuela


"Now we have full freedom to work on the ​Venezuela projects. Earlier, we were restricting our operations there because of the sanctions-related risk," finance director Anupam Agarwal said on ​an analyst call after the company's June-quarter ⁠earnings.

He said ‌Venezuela was offering additional incentives under its new ​petroleum law ​and that ONGC had expertise in operating fields ⁠with similar geology in India.

"We believe very soon ​we will see some positive developments, the new ​agreements signed, and we are taking over the operatorship for some of those projects from PDVSA," he said.

RUSSIAN SAKHALIN-1 ASSET

Agarwal said ONGC regained its 20% stake in Russia's Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project in December after a gap of four ‌years.

The restored stake increased the group's quarterly revenue contribution from the project to about 10 billion Indian ​rupees ($105.13 million), ​compared with 5 ⁠billion-6 billion rupees earlier, he said.

Also Read: Venezuela third largest supplier of crude to India in May

Russia transferred Sakhalin-1 to a new domestic operator after Western countries imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow following ​its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

ONGC agreed to make payments into the Sakhalin-1 abandonment fund in roubles using dividends frozen in Russia, allowing it to retain its 20% stake in the project, as Reuters reported last year.