ONGC eyes more oil assets, deals with ShellApril 27, 2006By Himangshu WattsNEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. is planning new investments with Royal Dutch Shell Plc and hopes to acquire further oil assets in Brazil and Nigeria, company officials said on Thursday.ONGC, leading energy-hungry India's drive to buy stakes in foreign fields, will also offer Brazil's Petrobras, equity in new refineries in India, they said. "With Shell we plan to do a number of specific investments," ONGC Chairman Subir Raha told reporters after signing a deal to acquire a 15 percent stake in the Shell-operated BC-10 offshore block in Brazil, in which Petrobras is also a shareholder. Raha said the deal would help ONGC bid for more oil and gas projects in the Latin American country.The Indian firm's overseas subsidiary, ONGC Videsh Ltd., hopes to boost output from its foreign assets to 8.5 or 9 million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas by 2010, from 6.6 million tonnes in 2006/07.In January, Shell, eyeing the growing Indian market, and ONGC, seeking oil reserves for Asia's third-largest economy, signed an agreement to cooperate in the hydrocarbon sector.Several oil majors have signed such agreements with state firms in India and China, hoping to access two of the fastest growing energy markets.The head of Shell's Indian operations, Vikram Singh Mehta, said ONGC's participation in the Brazilian venture was the first tangible step the two companies had taken together.DRY WELLSGlobal oil majors have been cautious about investing in India, where state controls on fuel prices have made retailing unprofitable, while enthusiasm generated by oil and gas discoveries in India by Cairn Energy and Reliance Industries has been offset by a series of dry wells drilled by others.This month, a senior executive from Chevron Corp., said his company was in talks with Reliance to jointly bid for the latest blocks being offered to explore oil and gas in India.Chevron also agreed to spend $300 million to buy a 5 percent stake in a new 580,000-barrels per day (bpd) refinery being built by Reliance.But BP Plc quit a joint venture to build a $3 billion refinery in India with state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd..HPCL officials said BP did not find India's refining and retailing sector attractive enough.ONGC has stakes in oil and gas projects in more than a dozen countries including Sudan, Vietnam, Australia, Libya and Russia.It holds a 20 percent share in Russia's Sakhalin-1 project, which is operated by oil major Exxon Mobil Corp..The head of ONGC Videsh, R.S. Butola, said Sakhalin was producing 40,000-50,000 bpd of crude oil, which was being consumed locally.Exports from Sakhalin would start in the second half of 2006 and crude oil would be shipped to India next year, he said.