Venezuela has agreed to ship oil to the country for enable ONGC Videsh (OVL) to recover the pending $600 million dividend for its stake in the San Cristobal Project in the South American country, Pankaj Jain, oil secretary said on Wednesday.
“They have agreed to give us some oil in lieu of OVL’s dues. We are waiting for (lifting) dates from them,” the secretary told reporters on the sidelines of a conference here.
India has resumed its purchase of Venezuelan crude oil after the easing of U.S. sanctions on the latter last year.
Earlier, the country’s Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had said that some Indian money is locked up in Venezuela while referring to OVL’s unpaid dividends and has hinted that India will welcome crude imports from the South American country.
“India consumes more than 5 million barrels of crude oil every day and the demand is only going up. So if Venezuelan oil comes into the market, we welcome it. So do all the others,” Puri had said.
The two companies had signed agreemens to facilitate redevelopment of the San Cristobal joint venture project in Venezuela in 2016.
The agreement had provided a mechanism to liquidate OVL’s outstanding dividends from the project. The company also needed to obtain long-term financing for investment for implementation of the project which aimed at increasing the production from the fields.
OVL was exploring options including allocation of oil by PdVSA to repatriate the dividend, Reuters had reported earlier in the day.
“Post easing of US sanction, OVL is in continuous dialogue with PdVSA for recovery of accrued dividend by various mechanisms including allocation of crude cargoes in lieu of accrued dividend,” Reuters had reported quoting OVL.
The San Cristobal Project is located in the Zuata Subdivision of proliferous Hugo Chavez Fria Orinoco Heavy Oil belt, in the Junin Norte Block in eastern Venezuela. It was incorporated in April 2008 after the two companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding in March 2005 to jointly develop oil and gas exploration and production projects in Venezuela.
