India's ONGC submits revised plan for Farzad gas field in Iran

MUMBAI (Reuters) -- The overseas arm of India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp has submitted a revised plan to develop the giant Farzad B gas block in Iran, including a commitment to spend more than $3 B, a senior executive said on Tuesday.

ONGC Videsh expects to produce between 1 Bcfd and 1.6 Bcfd of gas in five years from the start of development of the block, N. K. Verma, the company's managing director told Reuters in Mumbai on Tuesday.

India is the second-largest buyer of Iranian crude, and was among the few countries to continue trade with Iran while the country faced Western sanctions over its nuclear program.

But since the lifting of some of the sanctions last year, Iran has sought other investors and there is some uncertainty whether the Farzad block contract will be awarded to an Indian company. The impasse has led Indian refiners to plan on cutting imports from Iran by a fifth in 2017-18.

Verma also commented that ONGC Videsh expects to raise production during the fiscal year ending in March 2018 to 14 MMt oil equivalent, up from 12 MMt in the fiscal year of 2017.

The company also plans to invest $45 MM to produce from gas wells owned by Imperial Energy, which ONGC Videsh acquired in 2008.

"We are setting up gas processing facilities... we have dug four pilot wells and have got encouraging response," Verma said.

Reporting by Promit Mukherjee; Writing by Zeba Siddiqui; Editing by Christian Schmollinger

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