At a time when Cairn Energy has refused to recognise ONGC’s claim for pre-emptive rights on the issue of transfer of ownership of exploration blocks, RS Sharma, chairman of the state-run oil major, has said ONGC will not be a hindrance to Cairn’s proposed stake sale in its Indian unit to Vedanta Resources.

“As a commercial organisation, we are not going to put any impediment,” Sharma said on the sidelines on a CII summit in Bangalore on Thursday.

Cairn India, which holds stakes in ten oil and gas blocks in the country, holds a 70 per cent stake in Barmer oil block, while ONGC accounts for the rest.

Sharma said he is comfortable with the way the deal is going and there are no concerns. Vedanta and Cairn Energy announced in August that the latter would pay around $9.6 billion for a majority stake in Cairn India.

The comment comes even as the oil ministry has maintained that any change in the ownership of blocks requires the government’s consent under production-sharing contracts.

“We have excellent relations with Cairn India and Cairn Energy and we keep interacting with them,” Sharma said when asked about if the deal would sour relations between the two companies.

ONGC is likely to divest 5 per cent of its equity stake by March 2011 through a follow-on public offer (FPO). “The government has told us that it would like to divest 5 per cent of its holding by this fiscal-end. We will gear up for it in the January-March quarter, as the valuation of our underlying reserves is going on,” Sharma said.

The deal is pending because the oil ministry and Sebi have not given their approval yet.

Petroleum secretary S Sundareshan was reported as saying on October 27 that the government would take a decision on the Cairn Energy proposal in a few weeks. The ministry has said a company that has signed a production-sharing contract (PSC) with the government for an oil exploration block would need the government’s approval if a stake in the field or the company were to be sold.