By Eric Watkins
Middle East Correspondent
NICOSIA, May 21 -- An Indian refiner has received the first-ever shipment of Indian-owned equity crude from a foreign oil field.
India's state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp. received the first consignment of its equity oil from Sudan's Greater Nile Oil Project (GNOP), where subsidiary ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL) has taken a 25% stake.
The 80,000 tonne shipment, carried by the Seafalcon tanker and received at the New Mangalore Port Trust on May 15, will be processed by ONGC at its recently acquired 193,800 b/d Mangalore refinery.
The historic nature of the shipment was underscored by Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, on hand to receive the consignment, who said: "This is not imported oil. This is India's oil."
Petroleum Minister Ram Naik, also present at the occasion, noted that India imported 82.3 million tonnes of crude oil and products worth $17.35 billion in fiscal year 2002-03, with more than two thirds of it coming from the Middle East.
To diversify India's crude oil supply sources and to ensure that oil is available at all times, major emphasis has been given for acquisition of equity oil abroad, Naik said.
Earlier this year, Talisman Energy Inc., Calgary, concluded the sale to OVL of its stake in a producing block covering Heglig and Unity fields in Sudan's oil-rich Muglad basin (OGJ Online, Mar. 28, 2003).
GNOP, which consists of four blocks in the Muglad basin and a 1,500 km pipeline from the producing fields to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, produces around 250,000 b/d of oil.
Apart from OVL 25%, equity owners in GNOP are China National Petroleum Corp. 40%, Malaysia's state oil company Petronas Carigali Overseas Sdn. Bhd. 30%, and Sudan's national petroleum company Sudapet Ltd. (5%).