Business Line: For ONGC, it is US shale or Iran gas

ONGC may be out of the US blacklist of companies that do business in Iran but is still no closer to achieving its American shale gas dream.

To tap opportunities in the West, ONGC will still have to take a call on whether it is willing to let go of its huge gas discovery in Iran’s Farsi offshore block, now named Binaloud.

Although the US Government Accountability Office, in its report released in January, removed ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas investment arm of ONGC, from the list of companies engaged in certain activities involved in Iran’s energy sector, there is a catch.

Sources in the know of the development told Business Line that it (the US exemption) has to be read carefully. “It is conditional. A choice has to be made. On the one hand it will open US opportunities for the company, but on the other it will restrict (companies) from doing business in Iran,” one source explained.

This relief came after the US was convinced that the firm did not have any commercial activities in Iran. MORE

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