NEW DELHI, February 20: The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation is weighing the option of giving up the Neelam oilfields, after having drawn a blank in its efforts to upgrade the output of the "difficult" offshore property on Bombay High. "Our last opinion" said ONGC chairman and Managing Director Bikash Chandra Bora, "will be divestment of the property," adding that the company was still awaiting a nod from the Centre for enlisting an overseas partner.Meanwhile, exploration and production (E&P) consultants Degolyer and McNoughton, who were engaged to help boost the dwindling output of the field, have recently concluded their study.
The consultants are also understood to have assessed the reserves of the field, which was initially believed to contain 130 million tonne of oil. Should the reserves prove too small to make production commercially viable, auctioning off the field may prove a smarter business decision for ONGC.
"We will assess the reserves," Bora said, without confirming reports that preliminaryassessments had pegged the reserves at roughly 60 per cent of the oil which the Neelam fields were initially estimated to contain. The company had early last year proposed a joint venture with a strategic partner, that could bring in state-of-the-art technology into the problematic field.
The union petroleum ministry had endorsed ONGC's suggestion that 50 per cent stake in the Neelam fields be offered to the "strategic partner." The proposal was forwarded to the union cabinet and a decision was still pending when parliament was dissolved for fresh elections.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
