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OVL lost out deep-sea exploration Block 15 as its offer of $150 million signature bonus to Angolan government was way below 902 million winning bid made by Italy's ENI.
It was also substantially lower than Chinese Sinopec's bid of $750 million and $560 million committed by Total of France.
"Going by the high signature bonus and work programme quoted by the other competing companies, it is clear that in order to be in the zone of consideration, OVL shall have to bid at a level which is much beyond either its or ONGC's delegated powers," a company source said.
The Boards of OVL and its parent Oil and Natural Gas Corporation have been delegated powers to make a bid of up to Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion).
Sources said OVL called for a rethink on "the mechanism of approval of OVL's investment proposals besides substantially enhancing its Board's delegated authority".
According to OVL, the present mechanism of seeking prior approval of the government (Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs) every time it makes a bid of over Rs 300 crore or a rebid was constraining as "companies keep evaluating and updating bid parameters till the last hour of the submission of the bid as intake of new inputs is a continuous process."