Shell-Reliance give up Panna-Mukta fields; western offshore fields to revert to ONGC

After operating Panna-Mukta oil and gas fields for 25 years, Royal Dutch Shell and Reliance Industries will revert the western offshore fields back to state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), the companies said in a statement.

Panna-Mukta and Tapti (PMT) oil and gas fields in the Arabian Sea off the Mumbai coast were in 1994 awarded a consortium of US energy giant Enron and Reliance. ONGC, which had originally discovered the fields, as a government nominee given 40 per cent back-in rights.

Enron during its bankruptcy was taken over by BG Group of UK in 2003. BG Group’s interest was subsequently taken over by Shell in 2016.