Shirish Nadkarni
OGJ Correspondent
MUMBAI, Mar. 18 -- The Indian government has approved plans by ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL), the overseas investment arm of the state-run Oil & Natural Gas Corp., to invest as much as $458 million in oil and gas projects in Venezuela and Qatar.
The cabinet will permit OVL to form a joint venture with Petroleos de Venezuela SA for development of San Cristobal field with an investment of $356 million. It also has authorized OVL to invest $102 million for appraisal, development, and production-sharing for Qatar's Najwat Najem project.
Officials said the project provides OVL an opportunity to obtain significant equity ownership (40%) in the Venezuelan project. This is the first equity investment by OVL in the Latin American country.
The cabinet authorized an empowered committee of secretaries to approve extra investment of up to 25% of the original capital investment out of the revenues from the project, provided the rate of return remains over 10%.