India ONGC plans to invest in RI

India ONGC plans to invest in RI

NEW DELHI: India's state-owned petroleum exploration firm Oil & Natural Gas Corp. plans to invest more than 60 billion rupee (US$1.3 billion) annually, through its unit ONGC Videsh Ltd., to buy stakes in overseas oil and natural gas fields, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported on Tuesday.

"This figure may go up depending upon the investment requirement for developing a particular field," the PTI quoted ONGC Chairman Subir Raha as saying.

ONGC is in talks to buy stakes in oil fields in more than a dozen countries, the report said.

"We are talking for stakes in oil properties in South America, Central Asia, Australia, Indonesia, Russia and the Middle East," said Raha, according to the report. He didn't elaborate.

ONGC's overseas investment arm ONGC Videsh Ltd. already has stakes in petroleum fields in the U.S., Vietnam, Russia, Libya, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, and Myanmar.

Raha said ONGC Videsh earlier this month bought Austrian oil and gas group OMV AG's stake in two onshore oil blocks in Sudan for $136 million, and that these will yield ONGC up to 2 million metric tons of crude oil a year. -- Dow Jones