ONGC anger at Reliance NELP tactics
Senior officials at ONGC are privately angry at the tactics of Reliance in the run-up to submission of bids under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP).
It is understood that a senior official at Reliance made a series of telephone calls to junior ONGC officers in Dehra Dun, part of a team charged with selecting the blocks for which ONGC would bid. Reliance sought information on the number of blocks ONGC would bid for, plus details of the commercial terms and conditions offered by ONGC.
Following the telephone calls, ONGC cordoned off its Exploration & Development Directorate and a decision was taken that only one official would retain exact details of how many bids the corporation would make. This was intimated to three ONGC directors (Chairman, Exploration and Finance) only on the morning of submission on 18th August.