Royal Dutch Shell Plc  .com Rotating Header Image

New Delhi News.Net: Total, Shell seek stakes in OMEL’s Nigeria blocks

Wednesday 3rd January, 2007 (IANS)

India’s ONGC Mittal Energy Ltd (OMEL) may offer equity stakes to Royal Dutch Shell and France’s Total in the two offshore blocks it has in Nigeria once a product sharing contract (PSC) is signed, probably later this month, a top official said Wednesday.

‘Shell, Total and Exxon have expressed interest in taking equity stakes in the two offshore deepwater blocks we have got in Nigeria. We will discuss their offer after the production sharing contract has been signed, possibly later this month,’ ONGC Videsh managing director R.S. Butola told media here.

OMEL, a joint venture of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and the London-based L.N. Mittal Group, is yet to finalise how much equity stakes it would like to offer the global energy majors in the two prospective oil blocks OPL 212 and 209.

OPL 209 is close to Shell’s Bongo fields that have reserves of 800 million barrels.

ONGC is inclined to favour Shell’s request for the equity stake as it had relinquished its first right in the Campos basin to enable a stake for ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of ONGC.

Butola, however, said the final decision would be based on the terms offered by the firms for the stakes in the exploration blocks, which are expected to yield good oil resources as they adjoin oil-rich fields.

OMEL is meanwhile committed to invest $75 million in the preliminary exploration work programme for each block.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comment Rules

  • Please show respect to the opinions of others no matter how seemingly far-fetched.
  • Abusive, foul language, and/or divisive comments may be deleted without notice.
  • Each blog member is allowed limited comments, as displayed above the comment box.
  • Comments must be limited to the number of words displayed above the comment box.
  • Please limit one comment after any comment posted per post.