October 7, 2026: India's top explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC.NS), hopes to get rights to operate two Venezuelan oil projects in three to six months as it is in advanced talks with the Venezuelan and US authorities, its head of finance Anupam Agarwal said on Friday on an analyst call.

ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of ONGC, has over $500 million ⁠in pending dividend from its stakes in the two projects: San Cristobal and Carabobo 1 field.

The pending dividend from the two projects will be adjusted after the new operatorship agreements are finalised, Agarwal said.

Under the new arrangement, the Indian company — previously only an investor — would operate the projects and sell their output.

The new arrangement also includes a clause that could allow ONGC to ⁠take stakes in more Venezuelan fields, he said.

Agarwal said ONGC is expected to get full operatorship of the San Cristobal project, in which it holds 40% and Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA ⁠holds the rest, while for Carabobo it would be a joint operatorship with other investors. 

In the Carabobo project, ONGC and other Indian companies ⁠hold an 18% stake while Spain's Repsol has 11%.

He also said production from Russia's Sakhalin-1 project, in which ONGC ⁠holds 20%, averaged about 183,000 barrels per day in April-September, similar to the level recorded before Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

(Source: Reuters)