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OVL offer to develop three oil blocks in Angola

NEW DELHI: Pushing ahead with its aggressive policy for acquisition of oil and gas assets abroad, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Videsh Limited (OVL), the overseas arm of ONGC, has made a $ 1 billion offer to develop three offshore oil blocks in Angola.

Official sources said OVL, along with two other oil majors, had made a proposal to Angola for development of the three oil exploration blocks in which Sinopec of China and Angola’s national oil firm Sonangol have equity holdings. OVL had recently signed an agreement with Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) of Venezuela for supply of oil from its fields. It had also signed farming out agreement with French oil giant TOTAL for its two premium oil blocks in Nigeria.

With the focus turning on Africa, Angola, a sub-Saharan Africa’s second biggest crude producer, has proven oil reserves of over ten billion barrels.

The country has drawn up elaborate plans to increase the average output to two million barrels a day by the end of this year. Official said OVL had expressed interest in building a two lakh barrel a day oil refinery in the port of Lobito at an estimated cost of $5 billion.

Minister of State for Commerce and Power Jairam Ramesh, who visited Angola recently, had raised the matter with its Government evoking a positive response.

In March last, Sonangol ended talks with China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec) over investing in the plant at an estimated cost of $3.7 billion.

During the visit of Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma to Angola last year, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos had offered a 30 per cent stake to India in the refinery.

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