India's largest petroleum exploration company, the state-controlled Oil & Natural Gas Corporation is planning to invite bids on a global scale during September to develop up to 19 marginal offshore oil and natural gas fields, a company official said yesterday. "ONGC will award the contracts for the fields to the successful bidders by December this year" the official said.
ONGC will retain full ownership and production from these marginal fields and will pay successful bidders a fee for developing the fields. The fields cumulatively are estimated to hold reserves of around 63 million metric tons of oil and up to 29 billion cubic meters of gas.
Including these 19 fields, ONGC also has up to 96 marginal fields that aren't commercially viable for the company to develop.
ONGC is India's largest company by market capitalization with the government owning a 74.11% stake in the company. The remaining shares are held by financial institutions and the public.