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Indian Oil
Companies Make $1B Offer For Three
Blocks in
Angola
04-02-2008
India's ONGC Videsh Ltd, the
overseas arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), has made a
one-billion-dollar-offer to develop three offshore oil blocks in Angola.
OVL, along with two other oil majors, has made a proposal to Angola for
development of the three oil exploration blocks that currently have Sinopec of
China and Angola's national oil firm Sonangol as equity participants.
India's Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh took up OVL's case for a
stake in the blocks that may hold sizable oil reserves, when he met Angola's
Petroleum Minister Desiderio da Costa here.
"The Petroleum Minister has promised to expedite the proposal which has been
pending (for sometime)," Ramesh said.
Angola, sub-Saharan Africa's second biggest crude producer, has proven oil
reserves of over 10 billion barrels. The OPEC-member country plans to increase
average output to two million barrels a day by the end of this year.
India also expressed interest in building a 200,000- barrel per day oil refinery
in the port of Lobito at an estimated cost of $5-6 billion, Ramesh said.
In March last year, Sonangol ended talks with China Petroleum and Chemical Corp
(Sinopec) over investing in the plant, which was then estimated to cost $3.7
billion.
During a visit of India's 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.
"Not much progress has been made since then and we do not want to lose this
opportunity now. India has again expressed its interest in participating in the
refinery and will expedite the process," Ramesh said.
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