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ONGC Videsh Ltd has sought legal opinion after the United States imposed sanctions on a Russian oilfield in which a consortium of Indian companies holds a 49.9 per cent stake, sources said. US President Donald Trump on October 22 announced new sanctions against two of Russia's largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, in a bid to pressure Moscow into ending its war with Ukraine. As part of these, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated a number of Russia-based Rosneft and Lukoil subsidiaries in which they, directly or indirectly, held a 50 per cent or more stake. The list of subsidiaries thus blocked includes CJSC Vankorneft, in which OVL has a 26 per cent stake, and an Indian consortium comprising Oil India Ltd (OIL), Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Bharat PetroResources Ltd, which holds 23.9 per cent. The remaining 50.1 per cent is with Rosneft. While a plain reading of the OFAC sanctions indicates that the restrictions do not appl
ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), has re-taken a 20 per cent stake in the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas fields in the far east region of Russia, an official said on Monday. Russian President Vladimir Putin in October last year disbanded Exxon Neftegaz - a regional subsidiary of US super major ExxonMobil - as operator of the Sakhalin-1 and transferred the project and all of its assets and equipment to a new operator. The other former foreign shareholders in the project - Japan's Sodeco consortium and ONGC Videsh - were asked to apply to the Russian government to regain their shareholdings in the project. OVL applied and has been given the same shareholding as it had previously, the official said. Production from Sakhalin-1 stopped in April 2022 after Exxon Neftegaz declared force majeure at the project in response to international sanctions imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. Moscow assigned the Sakhalin-1 project and