The Hindu Business Line : ONGC, Hinduja ink MoU for E&P business

ONGC and Hinduja Group on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding to form joint ventures to pursue global opportunities in liquefied natural gas (LNG) and linked exploration and production (E&P) business. According to a statement issued by ONGC, "The collaboration will leverage the E&P expertise of ONGC and the business-relationship advantage of the Hinduja Group in the hydrocarbon-rich West Asia, with business prospectivity benefits to both entities."

The MoU between ONGC and Ashok Leyland Project Services (ALPS) provides for sourcing of LNG at competitive terms, to be facilitated by ALPS, the statement said.

"Pursuant to such sourcing, ALPS will be invited to participate in joint development of LNG-based downstream projects at Mangalore SEZ - like LNG-regasification, power, petrochemicals, as conceptualised by ONGC Group," it added.

The two concerned entities will form joint ventures/unincorporated joint ventures, whose equity structure is expected to be ONGC-49.98 per cent, ALPS-48.02 per cent, FIs/Banks-2 per cent, with the majority ownership remaining with ONGC.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chairman and Managing Director of ONGC, Mr R.S. Sharma, hoped that the combined strength of both entities would help to provide fillip to the energy security of the country.

Mr Sanjay Hinduja, representing the Hinduja Group, said that the joint venture, once formed, would aim to bring concrete results as envisaged in this collaboration.