Indian pair: take aim at Venezuela
Indian pair eye Venezuelan bid
India’s Reliance Industries and Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) may each take a 20% stake in at least one of Venezuela’s three large oilfields in the Carabobo region.
The Indian consortium will pick up a 40% interest, while the remaining 60% will be held by Venezuela’s national oil company PDVSA, India’s Economic Times reported a source close to the deal saying.
The Economic Times added that the two Indian companies will finalise members of the proposed consortium and submit expressions of interest to PDVSA over the next 15 days. The deal is expected to be complete by June.
Reliance and ONGC may take Indian Oil Corporation and Oil India into the consortium, as each field will require investments of more than $10 billion over its life of 11-15 years.
ONGC has an assurance from the Venezuelan government that it will be awarded at least one of the projects. In April 2008, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez had assured the visiting Indian petroleum minister Murli Deora that two blocks would be given to India (ONGC), subject to technical evaluation.
Each one of the Carabobo oilfields holds between 40 billion and 50 billion barrels of proven oil reserves.
Reliance and ONGC were unavailable for official comment.