ONGC Videsh, partners relinquish Israeli oil block

Three years after its much-acclaimed maiden entry into Israeli water that was symbolic of New Delhi’s growing closeness with Tel Aviv, an ONGC Videsh Ltd (Ovl)-led Indian consortium has relinquished the offshore oil block due to “very poor” hydrocarbon prospectivity. The consortium of OVL, Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Oil India Ltd and Bharat Petroresources (BRPL) has relinquished offshore Block-32, two officials with the partners said. When the Indian consortium in late 2017 won the Israeli energy ministry's nod to bid for the block, it was hailed as New Delhi's growing closeness with Tel Aviv amid a widening chasm with Iran over its recalcitrance in awarding the Farzad-b gas field development rights to the Ovl-led group.the nod for the Offshore Block-32 by the Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources came ahead of the then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to India in January 2018. Before that oil and gas was not part of the bilateral engagements between the two sides.