Livemint: ONGC’s Pact with ConocoPhillips on the Rocks

Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC), India’s biggest energy explorer, and the world’s fifth largest independent oil and gas exploration firm, ConocoPhillips, appear to have ended their partnership.

“We are doing it alone. We have the technology and expertise for developing deep water blocks and reservoir management and, hence, we are doing it ourselves,” said T.K. Sengupta, director-offshore, ONGC, in an April interview. He, however, did not give any reasons why the partnership with ConocoPhillips for deep water blocks in India was in trouble.

There is a sense of déjà vu that this evokes as time and again ONGC’s partners have either walked out citing poor prospects or the country’s complex regulations. ONGC signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with US-based ConocoPhillips in March 2012 to collaborate on the exploration of deep water blocks and shale reserves in India. The pact was signed after ONGC’s talks with several other firms, such as Exxon Mobil Corp., Petrobras SA, BG Group Plc, Eni SpA, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Statoil ASA, collapsed as ONGC failed to strike favourable deals with them. However, none of the firms issued any official statement on the reason for quitting their India plans. Among the partnerships that never saw the light of day were those with Rocksource ASA of Norway and Inpex Corp. of Japan. MORE