(PTI)
State-owned ONGC bought Gujarat State Petroleum Corp’s (GSPC) stake in a KG basin gas block for USD 1.2 billion (about Rs 8,000 crore) when the replacement value of brand new assets built by the company is at least USD 1.5 billion and the asking price was Rs 20,000 crore, its former chairman D K Sarraf said.
With Opposition attacking the government over what it said was “pressure” exerted on Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) to first bail out the debt-laden GSPC and then using the company to meet the disinvestment target by selling majority stake in HPCL, Sarraf, who headed the company when the two deals were struck, defended the acquisitions as “strategic and of immense value proposition”.
ONGC, he said, has been in the business of acquisition of oil and gas assets for decades, with its overseas investment arm ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) amassing 41 projects in 20 countries. “And so when quality assets are available next door, it is better than going abroad,” he said referring to GSPC putting on sale its 80 per cent stake in Deen Dayal West (DDW) gas field in Block KG-OSN-2001/3 in the Bay of Bengal and the government offering 51.11 per cent stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL).
