(BS)
The investment plan of ONGC Videsh (OVL) on Iran’s Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf seems to have been put on the back burner, with banks and operators having expressed concern about sanctions by the US. A source said a deal was expected to be signed on September 15 last year but got postponed after a European and an Australian consultant company withdrew from their contracts. A similar concern was raised by State Bank of India (SBI) that had an exposure to several projects of the fully-owned subsidiary of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).
Another official told Business Standard around 75 per cent of the deal was finalised by May 2018, which was when the US government unilaterally withdrew from the earlier nuclear deal with Iran. It had announced sanctions from November but India and seven other countries got a temporary breather. “We were of the belief that the deal might sail through but the fresh decision seems a final nail in the coffin of the Farzad deal,” said an industry source.
