OVL looks to win back Iraq's Tuba oilfield

NEW DELHI: With US firmly controlling oil assets in Iraq, ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), has begun efforts to revive its contract for Tuba oilfield in the war-ravaged nation.

"The new Iraqi Parliament, with the backing of the US, is likely to enact an oil law that allows renegotiation of oil contracts with foreign investors. We are trying to get back the Tuba oilfield," said a senior ONGC official.

Besides Tuba, OVL is also trying to revive a contract for the western desert Block 8, for which an agreement was signed with the deposed Saddam Hussein regime in 2000 but the company could not begin any work due to UN sanctions.

OVL, in consortia with Reliance Industries Ltd and Algeria's Sonatrach, was in talks with the Saddam Hussein regime before the US took over Iraq.

OVL and RIL were to hold 30 per cent each in the project, while Sonatrach was to take the remaining 40 per cent.

The official said OVL was working on Iraq's Tuba oil field before evacuating during the 1990-91 Gulf War, and it never returned. Over the past year, it had been actively negotiating its comeback to the field with an eye on the UN sanctions against Iraq being lifted.

The Tuba field in southeast Iraq can produce up to 200,000 barrels per day of crude. It can be brought on stream within two to three years of starting work.

OVL-Reliance-Sonatrach will invest 500-600 million dollars in the first phase of Tuba field, that can produce for 20-25 years.

Indonesia's Pertamina had in 2000 evinced interest in joining the Tuba consortia, the official said, adding Iraq National Oil Company was also to be involved with the project at a later stage.