ONGC Videsh signs PSCs for two Bangladeshi offshore blocks

ONGC Videsh Ltd, India’s foreign-asset oriented state oil explorer, said it has signed a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) for two offshore blocks with the Bangladeshi government.
The production sharing contract, the most important contract between a producer and the host country, was signed for shallow water exploration blocks SS-09 & SS-04 in the Bay of Bengal of Bangladesh on 17th February, 2014.
OVL along with Oil India Limited (OIL) – an India-focused state-owned operator – formed a consortium (50:50) and participated in the Bangladesh Offshore Bidding Round 2012, launched by Bangladesh Government during December 2012.
OVL/OIL consortium was officially notified as thewinner of two shallow water blocks SS-09 & SS-04 on 20th August 2013. Subsequently, the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) was discussed and initialled on 19th September, 2013 and the Government of Bangladesh approved the award of the blocks to OVL/OIL consortium on 3rd December, 2013, ONGC Videsh said.
OVL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), the national oil company of India, and is India’s largest international oil and gas E&P Company.
At present, OVL participates in 35 projects in 18 countries including Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya, Mozambique, Myanmar, Russia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Vietnam. OVL is currently producing 160 thousand barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas per day and has total oil and gas reserves of about 433 mmtoe as on 31 March 2013.