Ministry issues clarification regarding giving away Mumbai High field of ONGC to Private Sector

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, on Monday, November 22, 2021, issued a clarification regarding the reports which shared details about privatization of Mumbai High field of ONGC on proposal. 

Sharing the details, the officials stated that an internal strategy meeting was conducted by ONGC in the last few days of October 2021, at Udaipur, for which suggestions were sought regarding several plans, one of which included making a 25 years energy perspective plan, 15 years exploration plan by taking more acreages under exploration, and having partnerships for its major fields, with scope of enhancing recovery and technology infusion.  

Earlier in February 2021, the Government had decided that the National Oil Companies (NOCs) would be free to choose field specific models including farm out and Joint Venture (JV)/ Technical Service Model (TSM) for enhancing production from their mature and ageing fields. 

The release mentioned, “The Government is keen that the domestic production of Oil and Gas should increase exponentially.  ONGC, being the leading organization, has to play an important role.  While on one side, area under exploration has to be increased which would subsequently lead to more new discoveries in the country. On the other side, production from existing fields has also to be optimised and increased wherever possible by employing advanced technology, drilling more production wells, wherever technically feasible, and better management.” 

“For this private sector companies can be involved as partners or through various business models so that new techniques and technology can be brought in through such companies which have experience in this.  However, all this has to be done by following system and procedures in a transparent manner.  ONGC has to prepare its plan and take right decisions in order to increase domestic production. There is enough scope for several large and small companies to operate in the offshore and onshore basins in the country as substantial area is still available,” the ministry added.