State-run ONGC has rescinded the initial pacts for outsourcing production from its ageing fields in Gujarat and Assam to international service providers Schlumberger and Halliburton after the oil ministry objected to the contract being handed over without bidding.
ONGC had on December 7 last year signed Summary of Understanding (SoU) to give its Kalol field in Gujarat to Halliburton and Geleki field in Assam to Schlumberger to help in raising production above the current baseline output. Though the agreements were signed in presence of Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan during the bi-annual Petrotech Conference, the ministry felt it was not proper to give away such contracts on nomination basis, sources privy to the development said. The ministry in no uncertain terms told ONGC that such nomination contracts will not be acceptable, they said. The ONGC board, which had approved the MoU, thereafter too took a similar and cancelled the SoUs, they said. The company last week invited expression of interest (EoI) from service providers for undertaking production enhancement from its mature oil and gas fields.