It is reported that ONGC Videsh Ltd and its partners Indian Oil Corporation and Oil India Ltd have dropped plans to develop an oil field in Iran after the discovery was found to be commercially unviable.

The joint venture of OVL, Indian Oil Corp and Oil India had in 2006, made an oil discovery in the Farsi offshore block which was, in the initial estimates, thought to contain one billion barrels of reserves.

An official in the consortium said that “The oil discovery has been found to be commercially unviable primarily due to high sulphur content in the oil.”

The joint venture had informed the same to the National Iranian Oil Company and decided to abandon the project.

The official said that “The oil discovery has been held to be non commercial and we are not pursuing development of the discovery.”

The three have however submitted a master development plan envisaging an investment of USD 5 billion over 7 to 8 years in developing a massive gas field they discovered in Farsi.

(Sourced from Business Line)