Domestic pipe makers restricted to 20% of $500 million ONGC project

NEW DELHI: Domestic pipe makers have been restricted to only 20% of a $500-million ONGC project after the state-run explorer advanced the date of awarding contract to five days before the mandatory domestic purchase policy for iron and steel products was to kick in for the project.
ONGC had floated the tender for a project, identified as PRP-VII, to replace 317 km inter-platform offshore pipeline on September 22 with February 3, 2022 as the project award date. But on October 22, the company advanced the award date to January 20, 2022.
Industry sources said the successful bidder could have sourced all the pipes domestically under the original schedule as the two-year exemption from the domestically manufactured iron & steel products (DMISP) policy granted to ONGC would have ended on January 29, 2022.