ONGC wants site of Palk Bay project shifted

Chennai: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has asked the government to shift the location of its shallow water oil exploration project in the Palk Bay as the current site comes under a marine biosphere, a top official has said.

'We have only done some seismic survey and could not do more activities as the block comes under the marine biosphere, with the Environment Department objecting to any further work,' ONGC Chairman and Managing Director R S Sharma told reporters here last night.

The Centre should shift it to another site in the Palk Bay, he added.

The Board of Directors of ONGC had recently approved an investment of Rs 6,300 crore towards the second phase of Mumbai High project, he stated. He said Rs 5,200 crore was the investment for the first phase.

A high-level delegation of ONGC officials, headed by Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, will leave for Moscow on October 23, to bid for Sakhalin-III oil and gas blocks, he said.

'The delegation is expected to stay there for about 3-4 days and we will use diplomatic sources to clinch the project,' he said.

Presently, ONGC has 26 projects in 15 countries, with three new exploration blocks established by ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) in Columbia recently.

'We made 22 new discoveries in the last fiscal and are now in talks with Sri Lanka over their offering of some blocks,' Sharma said.

However, a final decision on accepting the offer would be based on merit only, he stated.

Talks were also on to use blocks in Myanmar, he informed