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Tuesday 31 May 2011

ONGC is readying for a legal battle over royalty payments for India's biggest oilfield in Rajasthan

State-run ONGC is readying for a legal battle over royalty payments for India's biggest oilfield in Rajasthan no matter the end result of Vedanta Resources' $9.6 billion bid to shop for Cairn India that operates the sphere, government officers said. The dispute has dogged the deal for ten months as a modification in royalty payments system can modification valuations and even threatens to derail the transaction that is predicted to be approved by the govt. with the condition that Cairn accepts ONGC's read on the dispute.

ONGC features a 30% stake within the Rajasthan block however is contractually absolute to pay Cairn's share of royalty. The state-run firm says that the contract conjointly permits ONGC to induce this payment reimbursed from the overall revenue of the sphere before profit is calculated. Cairn strongly opposes this. Senior oil ministry officers and prime ONGC executives have said the royalty obligation of state-run energy firm is value recoverable no matter materialization of the deal and that they would take legal recourse if Cairn disputes it. Even Cairn chief govt Bill Gammell had written to the govt. on April 18 that the deal would "inevitably cause the proposed transaction to fail" if the govt. insisted on conditional approval. ONGC has paid Rs 1,289 crore royalty for crude oil created from the Rajasthan field in 2010-11 and asked the operator Cairn India to create it value recoverable.

Declining to comment, whether or not Cairn has accepted ONGC's demand to treat the levy as value recoverable, company director-finance DK Saraf said; "We have created our position clear (to them)." the govt. conjointly desires Cairn to withdraw arbitration difficult cess payment. this can be not acceptable to Cairn because it would mean surrendering company's right to hunt legal remedies. the govt. desires Cairn to withdraw the arbitration as a pre-condition for approving the deal. Cairn is already engaged in a very legal battle with the govt. and ONGC over its cess liability that features a money implication of regarding $2.9 billion.

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