It will be only after September 14 that Cairn India may put in a formal request to ONGC seeking No Objection Certificates for Cairn Energy-Vedanta Resources stake sale deal.
Any deliberation on the issue will happen only after September 14, once Cairn India's shareholders give their mandate on whether they accept Government's conditions - royalty cost recoverable and withdrawal of arbitration cases by Cairn India.
Though, the postal ballot is seen as a mere formality as majority shareholder in the company - Cairn Energy (52.2 per cent), Vedanta and its Group company (18.5 per cent) - seem to be in acceptance of the Government conditions.
Asked whether separate NOCs will be sought for every block in which ONGC is a partner, the Cairn India Managing Director and CEO, Mr Rahul Dhir, said, “We have to discuss this.”
Cairn Energy has written to ONGC about its intent of seeking NOCs by September 21 for the stake sale. Cairn has 10 oil and gas blocks in India - three pre-NELP and seven NELP. Of the 10 blocks, ONGC is Cairn’s partner in 8 blocks.
Meanwhile, ONGC has appointed SBI Caps to do an independent valuation of Cairn India's hydrocarbon assets in India.