Monday, June 30, 2008

Relinquish Its Qatar Block To ONGC Videsh - June 30,2008

ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) has decided to surrender the Najwat Najem oil block in Qatar. OVL has communicated to the Qatari authorities and has informed its board on the decision to relinquish the asset after it discovered that the reserves in the block are low and not commercially viable. The OVL has also decided to release the rig purchased for undertaking drilling activity in the block. OVL, the overseas investment arm of ONGC, had inked an appraisal, development and production sharing agreement (ADPSA) with the Government of Qatar on March 2, 2005 for appraisal of the Najwat Najem oil structure. The block is the first overseas project executed by OVL wherein the company has both 100 per cent ownership and is the sole operator.

The first assessment well in the Najwat Najem structure was spudded in July 2007. OVL had firmed up two locations for evaluating the structure and assessing and proving its commerciality. While the first well spud showed oil and gas, the second well showed encounter of gas. The ADPSA comprised an initial two-year appraisal phase followed by a development phase. The minimum work committed during the appraisal phase is reprocessing and interpretation of seismic data, drilling of two appraisal wells and an integrated multidisciplinary study to assess the potential of the area.

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