(FE)
Amid reports that the government plans to offer 60% stake in government-owned companies’ existing oil and gas fields to private players, state-run ONGC on Friday wrote a letter to the Prime Minister opposing any such move. Upstream regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons has reportedly identified 15 hydrocarbon blocks — 11 of ONGC and 4 of Oil India — which it deems are not producing adequate oil and gas. These fields were given to the two national oil explorers during the nomination era. FE has earlier reported that ONGC will defend the government’s move to privatise the fields. The letter, written by Sanjay Goel from the ONGC’s Association of Scientific and Technical Officers, argues that the fields under question are more than 30 years old and the decrease in production is natural and should not be termed as underperforming fields. ONGC has assured to use enhanced oil recovery techniques and also deploy capital in all of its fields to increase production to achieve the government’s target of 10% reduction in oil and gas imports by 2022.
