Sudan offers India’s ONGC Videsh two oil and gas blocks

January 15, 2014 | Licensing & Concessions

ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas arm of India's biggest oil explorer, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation

ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas arm of India’s biggest oil explorer, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation

New Delhi – India’s ONGC Videsh (OVL) has received licences for two oil and gas blocks in Sudan, as it plans to improve its energy partnership with the oil-rich African country.

On a nomination basis, Sudan offered the overseas unit of the India state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation two major oil fields on land Block 8 and offshore Block 15.

While Block 8 is considered to have an oil discovery, Block 15 is an exploration acreage, reports Press Trust of India.

Following evaluation of data and if the blocks are suitable for investment, OVL plans to acquire complete rights.

Since 2003, OVL has been operating in Sudan when it acquired a stake in oil producing Blocks 1, 2 and 4 and the Sudan Crude Transport System.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Petrotech 2014 conference near New Delhi, Indian Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily said: “Sudan has offered two blocks.”

Following its separation with South Sudan in 2012, Sudan had lost most of its major oil fields.

OVL bought a 25% stake in the Greater Nile Oil Project (GNOP) in 2003.

This project comprised the upstream assets of onland Blocks 1, 2 and 4, which were spread over 49,500km² in the Muglad Basin, situated approximately 700km south-west of the Sudanese capital city of Khartoum.

Besides, GNOP owns a nearly 1,500-km crude oil pipeline from Heglig to Port Sudan at Red Sea.

In 2013, OVL acquired a stake in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oilfields, as well as the Baku-Tbilsi-Ceyhan pipeline.

Indian firms have been keen on acquiring oil and gas exploration and production projects in central Asian nation, Azerbaijan.