ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the international
arm of Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, is negotiating with Daewoo
International Corporation of Korea, to pick up 30 per cent equity in an
offshore exploration block in Myanmar. The offshore block (A-1) in the Bengal basin,
is 100 per cent owned by Daewoo International.
The block, which is exactly located in
Arakan, offshore Myanmar, near Bangladesh, is estimated to have eight trillion
cubic feet of gas reserves.
Daewoo International has reportedly
agreed to divest 30 per cent of its stake in the block, provided OVL bears 200
per cent of the participating interest through the first extension period (the
drilling stage). OVL, which has in-principle agreed to this pre-condition, is
negotiating other details including the possibility of acquiring operatorship
rights of the block.