ONGC Videsh (OVL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of government-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), on Tuesday said it has won two onshore blocks in Colombia.
The two blocks were bagged in an international bidding against companies like Petrobras and Shell. OVL will have a 100 per cent interest in block CPO 5 and 50 per cent interest with Pacific Stratus in block SSJN 7, a company statement said.
"Block CPO 5 is in the highly prospective onshore Llanos basin and block SSJN 7 is in the prospective onshore Sinu San Jacinto basin," it added. International crude oil prices have come down to around $55 a barrel against the S147-a-barrel mark reached in July, kicking off a debate on whether this is the right time for acquiring oil assets overseas. On Tuesday, the ONGC scrip closed at Rs 667.75, down 4.64 per cent, on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Colombia, through its regulatory agency Agencia Nacional de Hydrocarbons, has offered 43 blocks in four basins — Sinu San Jacinto, Cesar Rancheria or Guajira, Eastern Cordillera and Llanos — in round 2008. Global oil exploration and companies submitted their bids, which were opened on November 7.
The acquisition will help OVL consolidate its presence in Colombia, where at present it holds interest in three offshore exploratory assets and a producing asset. OVL recently announced that the company, along with its partner IPR Red Sea Inc, has made a second oil discovery in the North Ramadan area in Egypt. The discovery is estimated to have reserves of 800 barrels of oil a day. Its first oil discovery in the Gulf of Suez, NR-1A ST1, produced about 3,000 barrels a day during testing phase.

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