Proposal to give away Mumbai High to private sector upsets ONGC union

Govt is mulling to give away 60% stake and operatorship of Mumbai High and Bassein & Satellite offshore assets to international partners for raising output

NEW DELHI: The petroleum ministry’s proposal to give away ONGC’s biggest oil and gas fields to foreign companies has met with strong resistance from the officers union of the company, which has said that the government should empower and give the company a level-playing field rather than giving away its prime assets to the private sector on a platter.

The Association of Scientific & Technical Offices of ONGC petitioned Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri against a proposal put by Amar Nath, additional secretary (exploration) in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, for giving away 60 per cent stake and operatorship of Mumbai High and Bassein & Satellite (B&S) offshore assets to international partners for raising output.

The union, which represents ONGC’s 17,000 officers, said the company and its employees are completely aligned with the government objective of raising domestic production to cut imports, and for this to happen ONGC should be given the same fiscal and regulatory regime as the private sector enjoys for exploring and producing oil and gas.

The government-dictated below market price gas price fixation for ONGC fields should be reviewed to make a production from smaller and remote fields viable, it wrote to Puri on November 11. Also, ONGC should be given the freedom to market small pools of natural gas which in the present price regime are unviable.

Statutory clearances and authorities for ONGC need to be optimized and procedural aspects rejigged to help the firm take faster decisions.