Buy ONGC: Angel

Angel Broking has maintained its buy rating on Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in its November 21, 2008 research report. "Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and its partners have bagged 20 out of the 44 blocks that have been awarded under the seventh round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-VII). The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), which met on Thursday (November 20), decided to award 44 out of the 45 oil and gas blocks to the first ranked/sole bidders, while not awarding the Mumbai Basin Deep Water-2005/8 block to the sole bidder, Cairn Energy India - Cairn India (CEIL-CIL). The second biggest winner was the first-timer BHP Billiton Petroleum International-GVK Infrastructure Oil & Gas consortium, which was awarded seven deep-water blocks."

"The Centre had launched the NELP-VII on December 13, last year, offering 57 exploration blocks, which included 19 deep-water, nine shallow-water and 29 on-land blocks. The bids were opened on June 30. In all, 181 bids were received from 95 companies for 45 blocks (12 deep-water, seven shallow-water and 26 on-land). The Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) for the 44 blocks is likely to be signed within a month. Total investment commitment for Phase-I of exploration of these blocks is around USD 1.5 billion. We maintain a Buy on ONGC," says Angel's research report.

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Source: Moneycontrol