US names Indian oil firms doing biz with Iran

The US administration has named India’s oil and gas flagship ONGC and Indian Oil Corp (IOC) among the 41 firms worldwide having energy ties with Iran, an act for which it may impose sanctions on them.

The United States Government Accountability Office this week released a report ‘Firms Reported to Have Commercial Activity in the Iranian Energy Sector and US Government Contracts’ listing companies who have energy ties with Tehran.

“The Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) provides for sanctions against persons, including foreign firms, who invest more than $20 million in Iran’s energy sector in any 12-month period,” the report said. Of the 41 firms named in the report, five are Indian. Besides ONGC and IOC, it names ONGC Videsh — the overseas investment arm of the state-run explorer, Oil India Ltd and Petronet LNG.

 

OVL, IOC and OIL explored for oil and gas in Farsi block and proposed investing $5.5 billion in producing gas from the 21.68 trillion cubic feet (tcf) discovery they made in the offshore block located near the Saudi Arabian border.