ONGC to acquire 50 per cent stake in Columbia oil firm

New Delhi, Sept 19 (UNI) Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will acquire 50 per cent stake in the oil firm Omimex de Colombia at a cost of 425 million dollars that will ramp up its production by one lakh barrel per day.

ONGC Videsh (OVL), the overseas arm of ONGC, and Chinese firm Sinopec are paying 850 million dollars to acquire Omimex de Colombia that currently produces 20,000 barrels of oil per day.

OVL and Sinopec are equal partners in the acquisition bid, ONGC officials said, adding production can be ramped up to 1,00,000 barrels per day, half of which would accrue to OVL.

The firm has onshore production as well as exploration blocks in Colombia with the net proven reserves of around 157 million barrels.

ONGC will ship its share of crude oil from Russian oilfield Sakhalin-I in second week of November. "OVL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, is planning to bring the first two cargoes of crude oil each with a capacity of about 700,000 barrels from Sakhalin-I project in Russia into India in October and December 2006," Mr Sharma said.

The first tranche of 90,000 tonnes is expected at Mangalore port in second week of November, he said adding the crude would be processed at ONGC's subsidiary Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL).

OVL has 20 per cent stake in the ExxonMobil-operated Sakhalin-I project in Far East Russia.

UNI/RT PV RS2025