Sudan is holding up extending ONGC Videsh's licence over an oil field as the government seeks higher royalties, tax and profit petroleum even as it delays paying nearly $300 million in oil dues.

The licence for Block 2B expired last week and an automatic 5-year extension is available, but Sudan, whose revenues have been hit with a drop in oil prices, wants higher taxes and royalties before it agrees to the same, officials said.

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) will in 2019 begin producing oil from the Ratna and R-Series oilfield in Mumbai offshore, which it won back after the government cancelled award to Essar Oil.

"We are working on a development plan and investment approvals will be sought in a month's time," ONGC Director (Offshore) Tapas Kumar Sengupta told PTI here.

The ministry of petroleum and natural gas is scrutinising the actions of its Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, the directorate general of hydrocarbons (DGH) and the then Congress-led government, regarding the gas migration row in the D6 block of the Krishna-Godavari basin, petroleum minister Dharme-ndra Pradhan said.

A $1.55-billion penalty notice has been put on the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) for producing ONGC’s share of natural gas in the basin. “There is an amount of responsibility on the then government, DGH and ONGC on the gas migration case.

New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Monday granted the Centre an extension of two months to take a decision on the extension of a product-sharing contract between Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) and Cairn India for the Barmer block in Rajasthan.

Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva told the Centre to take this decision individually and not link it with the policy guidelines that the Centre was formulating keeping in mind other companies whose contracts are also set to expire.

The government has sought $1.55 billion (nearly Rs 10311.76 crore) from Reliance Industries and its partners for drawing natural gas belonging to state-owned ONGC in the KG basin over the last seven years.

The Oil Ministry has sent a notice to RIL seeking $1.55 billion compensation, sources privy to the development said.

NEW DELHI: In a setback to energy firms like ONGC and Cairn India, the government will from this fiscal levy service tax of about Rs 1,922 crore on royalties they pay to the exchequer on oil and gas they produce.

Companies currently pay 9.09 per cent of the price they realise on oil and gas produced from onland or onshore fields and 16.67 per cent on the same from offshore areas.

ONGC on Thursday reported 6.3% increase in net profit at Rs 4,975 crore in the second quarter of the current financial year as against Rs 4,681 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

Lower crude oil and natural gas price saw ONGC gross revenue fall 10.3% to Rs 18,395 crore against Rs 20,512 crore in Q2 FY16.

Government-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) on Thursday reported a 6.3 percent increase in net profits at Rs 4,975 crore in the second quarter of current financial year as against Rs 4,681 crore in the same quarter last year.

The ONGC board also recommended a bonus issue ratio of 1:2, that will provide one bonus share for every two existing shares held. The recommendation will be subject to the approval of shareholders.

The board of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will on Thursday consider issuing a bonus share to increase liquidity ahead of government disinvestment.

With all of its about Rs 14,000 crore cash committed in future projects and capital expenditure, the company is considering issuing bonus shares rather than cash dividends as a method of providing income to shareholders.

Thanks to its efforts at improving efficiency in exploration, government-owned ONGC has broken the declining trend in its oil and gas output from onshore assets that prevailed for the past four years.

The production from onshore assets rose nearly 3% to 1.498 million tonnes in the second quarter of FY17 from 1.454 million tonnes in the first quarter of the fiscal.

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