ONGC raises bar, Vedanta to miss Cairn India takeover date

ONGC raises bar, Vedanta to miss Cairn India takeover date
Sanjay Dutta, TNN, Jan 30, 2011, 04.02am IST
Tags:Vedanta Resources|ONGC|Murli Deora|Cairn India
NEW DELHI: The PM's January-end deadline for clearing Vedanta Resources' plan to take control of Cairn India, the Indian arm of Scottish explorer Cairn Energy Plc, is going to be missed. The ONGC board on Saturday raised the bar for the oil ministry, which will now find it difficult to approve the $9.6-billion deal without addressing the state-run explorer's concerns.
Indicating a resolve to fight for its interest in Cairn's Barmer oil fields, where it is a 30% partner, the board decided to tell parent oil ministry it should clear the deal only after Cairn and ONGC resolve their dispute.
The board also put its stamp on ONGC's demand that the royalty it pays on the entire crude produced from the Barmer fields should be recovered from revenues before calculating profit. If this is done, the resolution says, ONGC will give up efforts to get compensation from the government.
ONGC pays 100% royalty, though it has only 30% share in the field. Cairn is paying its share of cess "under protest''. The skewed arrangement is the result of a historical policy anomaly. The government was to refund ONGC the partner's share of the royalty but has refused to do so. Barmer has, thus, become the killing fields for ONGC -- it loses money as production rises.
The ONGC board said Cairn will have to get its green signal in line with the Solicitor-General's recommendations. The board also noted that Cairn has not yet sought ONGC's approval. In other words, the company is standing firm on its ground that it has pre-emption right.
The board decided against making a pre-emptive as it did not find Cairn India, or more specifically Barmer, worth the money Vedanta was willing to spend on. In 2004, an internal evaluation had pegged the valuation of Barmer fields at about $2-3 billion.
The ONGC board meeting was called to formalise the company's views after the oil ministry sought its take on the deal. The Prime Minister had last month written to then oil minister Murli Deora to clear the Cairn-Vedanta deal by January-end. Deora's successor, S Jaipal Reddy, said he will go by the rule book. "There are certain issue that have been referred to the law ministry. I can expedite them. But we will strictly go by the book,'' he had told reporters after taking over.
Sanjay Dutta, TNN, Jan 30, 2011, 04.02am IST
Tags:Vedanta Resources|ONGC|Murli Deora|Cairn India
NEW DELHI: The PM's January-end deadline for clearing Vedanta Resources' plan to take control of Cairn India, the Indian arm of Scottish explorer Cairn Energy Plc, is going to be missed. The ONGC board on Saturday raised the bar for the oil ministry, which will now find it difficult to approve the $9.6-billion deal without addressing the state-run explorer's concerns.
Indicating a resolve to fight for its interest in Cairn's Barmer oil fields, where it is a 30% partner, the board decided to tell parent oil ministry it should clear the deal only after Cairn and ONGC resolve their dispute.
The board also put its stamp on ONGC's demand that the royalty it pays on the entire crude produced from the Barmer fields should be recovered from revenues before calculating profit. If this is done, the resolution says, ONGC will give up efforts to get compensation from the government.
ONGC pays 100% royalty, though it has only 30% share in the field. Cairn is paying its share of cess "under protest''. The skewed arrangement is the result of a historical policy anomaly. The government was to refund ONGC the partner's share of the royalty but has refused to do so. Barmer has, thus, become the killing fields for ONGC -- it loses money as production rises.
The ONGC board said Cairn will have to get its green signal in line with the Solicitor-General's recommendations. The board also noted that Cairn has not yet sought ONGC's approval. In other words, the company is standing firm on its ground that it has pre-emption right.
The board decided against making a pre-emptive as it did not find Cairn India, or more specifically Barmer, worth the money Vedanta was willing to spend on. In 2004, an internal evaluation had pegged the valuation of Barmer fields at about $2-3 billion.
The ONGC board meeting was called to formalise the company's views after the oil ministry sought its take on the deal. The Prime Minister had last month written to then oil minister Murli Deora to clear the Cairn-Vedanta deal by January-end. Deora's successor, S Jaipal Reddy, said he will go by the rule book. "There are certain issue that have been referred to the law ministry. I can expedite them. But we will strictly go by the book,'' he had told reporters after taking over.