Will ONGC's Mangalore venture come on track with PMO's involvement?

10-Oct-05

conditions to ONGC's Mangalore venture, despite the Prime Minister's approved. The Mangalore project is a Rs 25,000 crore investment by ONGC in LNG, power and petrochemicals, and has been ordered implementation as per the original approval. ONGC plans to set up a Rs 5,000 crore LNG terminal with capacity of 10 million tons, a Rs 1,100 crore C2-C3 recovery plant, a Rs 9,000 crore petrochemical complex, a Rs 4,624 crore 1,445 mw power plant and Rs 2,000 crore pipelines for transporting gas. ONGC had last year signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Karanataka Government for projects worth Rs 25,000 crore but could not proceed due to objections from the oil ministry. A recap shows us that the PMO had on July 15 approved Mangalore refinery and Petrocemicals (an ONGC subsidiary) as the implementing agency for the total project with ONGC providing finances and guarantees. The Petroleum Ministry ordered that financing of the project and role of MRPL be decided in consultation with it. Upon learning of the fresh conditions, the PMO reproached the oil ministry asking immediate deletion of the conditions and following of the PM's order in totality. The PMO has directed the ministry to facilitate implementation of the project as per original approval.