Waiting: Sri Lanka Energy Minister AHM Fowzie
ONGC ‘to decide’ on Sri Lanka block
India’s Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will decide whether to explore for oil and gas in a block offered it by Sri Lanka, Indian officials have reportedly told the country’s oil minister, AHM Fouzie.
Colombo offered the Mannar basin block to ONGC in 2007, but the company was unimpressed by the prospectivity of the acreage or a signing bonus of $13 million, India’s Economic Times newspaper reported.
However, Fouzie said on the sidelines of the Petrotech 2009 conference in New Delhi he had raised the matter with Indian Oil Minister Murli Deora and ONGC chairman RS Sharma.
Fowzie said the pair told him they would respond within a month. He said “we can negotiate” over the matter of the signing bonus.
Sri Lanka has also offered a Mannar basin block to China, while Cairn India has won a block in the basin in Sri Lanka's last bidding round.