India’s ONGC Considers Resuming Venezuela Oil Operations Despite $900 Million Owed by PDVSA

ONGC Videsh Ltd is considering reviving operations at its two onshore oil assets in Venezuela. The overseas unit of India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation holds a 40 percent stake in the San Cristobal concession in the Orinoco belt and an 11 percent stake in the Petrocarabobo concession in Eastern Orinoco. State oil firm PDVSA holds majority stakes in both assets.

OVL still expects about $900 million in dividends due from PDVSA for its stakes in the two concessions, according to industry executives cited by the Economic Times. The company plans to resume work even though the payments remain outstanding. One industry executive told the newspaper that economic conditions in Venezuela are now suitable for operations and that all field operators are going back.

The San Cristobal asset is in a more advanced stage of planning for resumption. OVL is expected to draft a recovery and resumption plan for both San Cristobal and Petrocarabobo fields in the coming months.

U.S. Took over Venezuela’s oil sales in January and has since eased sanctions while urging foreign companies to invest. U.S. eased several key general licenses for operations in Venezuela, allowing additional activity in oil, gas, and minerals extraction.

U.S. control. Venezuela’s oil exports reached a fresh seven-year high in May, with shipments to the United States and India surging.

Indian energy companies are interested in expanding into Venezuelan oil, New Delhi’s top energy official Hardeep Singh Puri said last week at a meeting with Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez in India.