ONGC picks up stake in South Pars field; to develop Farsi bloc

NEW DELHI: In a major breakthrough, Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) today signed agreements to pick up stake in a giant gas field and a LNG plant in Iran, which also awarded the rights to develop a gas discovery it made in the Persian Gulf two years ago.
ONGC Videsh Ltd and Hinduja Group signed agreements to take 40 per cent interest in the USD 7.5 billion, Phase 12 of the gigantic South Pars gas field, Iran's Deputy Oil Minister and Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) Seifollah Jashnsaz said.

Also, the two, along with Petronet LNG, would get 20 per cent of Iran LNG's project that will convert the gas from South Pars Phase-12 (SP-12) into liquefied natural gas for exports.

The Indians will get up to 6 million tons or 60 per cent of the liquefied gas that Iran LNG will produce in return.

Jashnsaz said considering the "good work" done by OVL in discovering a big gas field in the Farsi block, Iran has also decided to award it the right to develop the field. OVL, along with Indian Oil and Oil India, will invest USD 5-5.5 billion in developing the Farzad-B gas field.

While ONGC Chairman and Managing Director R S Sharma said the distribution of stake in SP-12 between OVL and Hinduja Group was not decided, Hinduja Group Co-Chairman GP Hinduja said it would be split equally.

Hinduja said in the Iran LNG project his firm will have 10 per cent and the remaining would be shared by ONGC/OVL and Petronet.