KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) - The Indian government has decided to push oil exploration and production major ONGC  not to give up on its existing investments in South Sudan and, on the contrary, to look at long-term investment opportunities despite strife and violence in the newly independent African nation.

According to an official in the Oil and Natural Gas Ministry, the government-owned ONGC has been asked not to abandon its investments in South Sudan and instead to look at opportunities in that country from a long-term perspective, with damage to its investments not irrecoverable.

The official said that the External Affairs Ministry had communicated that it wanted ONGC to continue to have South Sudan on its radar despite current adversities, since it was in India’s interest to continue to remain economically engaged in the African nation.

The External Affairs Ministry’s intervention and coaxing of ONGC not to reverse its investments strategy in South Sudan followed commitments given by External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshed during his recent visit to Khartoum, that “India should continue to do business in South Sudan with determination and despite problems faced by ONGC, the latter should look ahead and move on.”

In December 2013, ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of ONGC, halted operations in South Sudan and evacuated all officials from the country in the wake of violence.

ONGC Videsh, which has an equity stake in two oil blocks, has evacuated 11 officials working across the oil blocks. The company holds a 25% equity stake in Greater Pioneer Operating Company, which produces 37 000 bbl/d and another 25% in Block 5A producing 4 600 bbl/d.

The Ministry official said that company assets had been damaged but not irreparably and the shutting down had been done so as to ensure the resumption of operations would not be hindered, adding that whether operations would resume had not as yet been decided by the company board.

The total Indian investment in the oil and gas sector in Sudan was pegged at $2.5-billion in 2011, at the time the two nations were partitioned.

While disaggregated investment figures for the two countries, post partition were not available, India continued to increase investment in Sudan with the country recently awarding two oil and gas blocks to it on preferential nomination basis.