A consortium of Indian oil and natural gas companies including the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s overseas arm – ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) – the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), and Oil India Limited (OIL), has decided not to exercise its pre-emption rights against Petroliam Nasional Berhad’s (Petronas) proposed sale of its stake in the Venezuela-based oil facility. Petronas that owns 11 per cent of the facility had decided to exit the project following a dispute over the terms of the agreement with Venezuela’s state-run firm Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PdVSA). Besides Petronas, OVL and Repsol SA each hold an 11 per cent stake in the facility, while IOC and OIL own a 3.5 per cent stake each. PdVSA holds a majority share of 60 per cent. All the stakeholders in the project have the right of first refusal to Petronas’s proposed stake sale.
