A possible technical partnership between ONGC and Reliance Industries-BP could be in the offing. ONGC, which has sent flyers to international companies for a tie-up to boost its domestic deep-water hydrocarbons hunt, has heard from its neighbours in the East Coast block, Reliance Industries-BP, though not specifically for the current offer.
Sources privy to the developments said, interest has been evinced to go in for a technical collaboration, which could be a win-win situation for both.
Political implications
However, any decision on such a tie-up has its own political implications — while ONGC is a national oil company, Reliance is a private sector major.
The public sector major has put on offer 19 oil and gas acreages, including the East Coast ultra-deepwater gas discovery, won through domestic licensing rounds. Development of block KG-DWN-98/2, adjacent to the Reliance KG-D6 acreage, where ONGC has made a cluster of discoveries in both conventional and ultra-deepwater sectors, does present a technical challenge.
ONGC's main focus has been fast-track monetisation (bringing to production) of its acreages. Many of the blocks on offer are largely un-chartered, ultra-deepwater acreages.
ONGC had written to 13 international companies, mainly from the US and Australia, for a proposed partnership in 19 blocks. Of the 13, three players have responded, including ConocoPhillips. ONGC hopes to complete the process by the second quarter of the next fiscal.
Ageing fields
At present, most of ONGC's production comes from ageing fields and Mumbai High offshore. The company hopes that new and marginal fields can help raise its crude oil production by about 15 per cent to 28 million tonnes by 2013. It hopes that natural gas production will rise to 100 million standard cubic metres per day by 2016-17 from the current 62 mmscmd.