New Delhi: No proposals have been made to list ONGC Videsh (OVL), the overseas investment arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corp, India's biggest explorer, said Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Saying market conditions were not ideal for listing an exploration and production company, the ONGC board had last month raised the red flag to a move by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) for listing ONGC Videsh.
"There is no such proposal before the government now," Pradhan said, responding to a question on OVL listing. Indian companies have acquired assets worth US$5.841 billion in six countries, including Russia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Namibia, Oman and Israel in the past three years. Out of this, US$4.847 billion was spent on two assets in Russia, Vankor and Taas Yuryakh. "The overseas investment strategy by the previous regime was to buy exploratory blocks. This government's priority is to invest in producing fields. Normally, countries do not give producing fields to anyone. Due to the diplomatic influence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we got good producing fields in Russia, Oman and the UAE," Pradhan said. With an overall investment of US$28.36 billion till the end of 2017-18, OVL had a presence in 20 countries. "Now, overseas investments of state-owned companies are not only limited to the basket of OVL. We have formed a consortium of companies and made the biggest-ever overseas investment of $5 billion in Russia in the producing fields," Pradhan added.