ONGC's proposal to assign a 25% participating interest in its Mahanadi basin deep water block, MN-DWN2002/2,to BG Exploration and Production India Ltd (BGEPIL) has been recommended for approval of the petroleum ministry by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons(DGH).

The expert committee engaged by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to go into the alleged damage caused to the historic Rangghar by the seismic survey carried out by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGCL), has been learnt to have called for a policy of the State Government to regulate blast and mining activities in and around the historic sites. According to information available with this newspaper, the committee has also asked the Government to engage mining experts to ascertain the impact of the ONGCL seismic survey on the Rangghar.

Even as the last date for bidding for Nelp-VII has been deferred till May 16, owing to uncertainty over sops for the E&P players, the petroleum ministry has not given up just yet. The ministry, in its internal report, said focus would be given on increasing domestic production by attracting investments, both private and public, in the upstream sector. This would be done by involving the industry in formulating an investor-friendly E&P investment regime.

In 1994, the Nagaland government asked the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ongc) to shut shop in the state. Pressure from local people and militant groups had a big role in the decision. The

Pungthing Shimrang, a senior member of National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Issac Muviah), tells Down To Earth

On resumption of oil exploration
We have not agreed on that. We can't allow mineral resources of the state to be extracted by outsiders.

On environmental damages

The Assam government today assured Assam Assembly to take necessary steps to safeguard historical monuments that are allegedly under threat because of ongoing seismic survey conducted in Sivasagar district of Upper Assam by a private firm called Shibani, contracted by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC). Most of these centuries old historic monuments from Ahom dynasty, which ruled over Assam for six hundred years since the 12th century AD, are now under protection of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

Faced with the trend of declining production, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is understood to have identified 14 of its major oil and gas fields for augmentation of production under the oil re

DINESH KUMAR PANDE, Director (Exploration), ONGC, is a many-sided man. A petroleum geologist by profession, he joined the ONGC in 1976.

THE ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL), a subsidiary whose primary business is to bid for oil and gas acreages abroad and produce hydrocarbons, is going places. According to R.S.