New Delhi: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Oil India are moving staff out of Libya, fearing more violence in the North African nation that is facing a rebellion.
ONGC has one staffer while OIL had two in the Libyan capital Tripoli and the two state firms are making arrangements to evacuate them by month-end.
"Contact with the officer has been intermittent," ONGC Chairman and Managing Director A. K. Hazarika said, "We are working with External Affairs Ministry and the Indian Embassy in Libya to bring him back."
OIL has been able to deliver air-tickets to its officers of two flights out of Tripoli.
"Communication through telephone and internet is very difficult. But we have been able to speak to them and have managed to send tickets across for a couple of flights out of Tripoli tomorrow and the day-after," OIL Chairman and Managing Director N. M. Borah said.
Both the firms have authorised their staffers to leave Libya by whatever mean possible.
"We have (asked) our officer to be in touch with Indian Embassy in Libya," ONGC Videsh Ltd Managing Director R. S. Butola said.
OVL, the overseas arm of the state explorer, had three blocks in Libya - Block NC-189 in Sirte Basin, Block 81-1 in Ghadames Basin in south-west Libya and Contract Area 43 located in Cyrenaica offshore basin in the Mediterranean sea.
The company had surrendered Block NC-198 and Block 81-1 after it did not discover any hydrocarbon and was working only on Contract Area 43.
OIL is the operator of two exploration blocks in scrub desert area of Western Libya. The blocks, where Indian Oil Corp was an equal partner, had turned out to be dry and OIL had decided to relinquish them.
"We were in the process of winding up operations (when the unrest broke out in Libya)," Borah said.
OIL had, some weeks back, applied to Libyan authorities for relinquishing the two onshore blocks - Block 86 and Block 102(4) in oil-prolific Sirte Basin.
OIL was the operator of the two blocks and held 50 per cent stake in the venture, while the rest was held by state refiner IOC. OIL-IOC had won the blocks in the Libyan Exploration and Production Service Agreement (EPSA IV) Bid Round I in 2004.
The official said OIL also has interest in Area 95/96 (Block 2/1, 2 & 4) with Algerian oil firm Sonatrach. OIL and IOC hold 25 per cent stake each, while Sonatrach is the operator with 50 per cent.
The onshore block, located in the oil-prolific Ghadames Basin, was won in EPSA Bid Round IV in 2007.