Cash-strapped ONGC looking to foreign firms

New Delhi: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is offering a stake to foreign companies in its ultra deepsea gas discovery and a high-pressure, high-temperature block in the KG basin as it looks for financial and technological help to bring the challenging fields to production.

ONGC has floated an initial tender seeking interest of global majors with "requisite technical expertise and financial strength" to join as partners in development of the Deen Dayal West (DDW) block as well as ultra-deep discoveries in Cluster-III of its KG-D5 area.

Expressions of Interest (EoIs) have been invited by June 16, according to the tender floated by the company. While ONGC had made a gas discovery UD-1 in the KG-D5 block in water depth of 2,850 metres (almost 3 kilometers), the firm had in August 2017 paid Rs 7,738 crore for buying 80 per cent stake in the DDW block from Gujarat government firm GSPC.