ONGC needs a drillship to probe the KG basin UD-1 gas find of January 2007 and had been in talks with RIL for several months and its board finally gave its go-ahead on June 6 after Brazilian national oil firm Petrobras also evinced interest in taking the rig on assignment basis from RIL.
Independent directors on the board had been blocking the deal but were prevailed upon at the June 6 meeting after it became clear that alternate rigs were available for at least 10 per cent higher price than RIL rates, the official said.
When contacted, ONGC chairman and managing director R S Sharma confirmed the board approval for hiring the rig Dhirubhai Deepwater KG-1 (earlier christened Deepwater Pacific-1) on an assignment basis for four years beginning end-July 2009 but refused to give details.
Petrobras had offered $5,50,000 to $5,60,000 per day for the rig against the day-rate of $4,95,000 that ONGC will be paying for first 180 days. ONGC will pay $510,000 a day from 181 days onwards.
Besides Petrobras, Eni of Italy and Cnooc of China too were interested in the rig that is capable of drilling in water depths of up to 10,000 feet but RIL chose the Indian flagship firm.
