ONGC, BP ink deal on oil and gas exploration and production

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The memorandum of understanding (MoU) is for collaboration in exploration and production (E&P) business in India and abroad. This includes participation of ONGC and BP in each other's overseas and local assets such as coal bed methane (CMB) blocks in India. ONGC has already found gas in a CBM block in Bengal.

"We need expertise and BP has domain knowledge of E&P business," ONGC chairman and managing director R.S. Sharma said following the signing of the MoU between the two companies.

Sharma said was ONGC was looking at partnering BP in some of the British firm's overseas properties in Russia and Latin America. "We also want them to bring their expertise in deepsea blocks we have in India," he said.

Sharma said both the oil majors had varied experiences in exploration and production business and this synergy would give competitive advantages to both entities in global operations.

The agreement, valid for an initial period of 18 months, could be extended further by mutual agreement, ONGC said in a statement.

The agreement was signed by ONGC director (exploration) D K Pande and BP president (Middle East and South Asia) Steve Peacock.

ONGC's chairman and managing director R.S. Sharma, BP India's Country Head Ashok K. Jhawar and other directors and senior executives of ONGC and BP were present on the occasion.

In a separate development, ONGC and the Indian arm of world's third largest business applications vendor SAP AG of Germany, has signed a MoU to share expertise and collaborate for training and consultancy assignments in India and globally.

A.K. Balyan, director (Human Resources), ONGC, and Bill McDermott, president and CEO for SAP America's Asia Pacific and Japan region signed the deal.

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