New Delhi, Oct. 16 (PTI): The government is considering taking over Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s international arm, ONGC Videsh Ltd, and converting it into a national exploration and production flagship for investments overseas.

OVL, which has committed over $4.5 billion (about Rs 19,800 crore) in 14 countries on the strength of its parent firm, is 100 per cent owned by ONGC.

Sources said petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar feels OVL under ONGC was “suffocating” as the parent firm had “kept it inadequately staffed and failed to provide the technical support” needed to pursue E&P projects.

With just one managing director and a director (finance), OVL has not been able to follow up on the opportunities arising from Aiyar’s much-acclaimed ‘oil diplomacy’.

He now wants to make OVL a 100 per cent government-owned firm after snapping it from ONGC with a view to better co-ordinate diplomacy and commercial deals, they said.

However, not everybody in petroleum ministry is buying Aiyar's grand plans. For one, the presentation for the issue ? ‘energy security & India's oil diplomacy’ ? was prepared by Aiyar's trusted lieutenant Talmiz Ahmad, an IFS officer, serving as additional secretary (international co-operation) in the oil ministry, who kept even petroleum secretary S.C. Tripathi in dark till the last minute, sources claimed.

If sources are to be believed, top ministry officials, including Tripathi, feel OVL was best in the hands of ONGC as it cannot survive without the strength of ONGC’s balancesheet and its brand name. ONGC had carefully nurtured OVL into a name to reckon with internationally. ONGC has lent Rs 15,000 crore to OVL and provided Rs 500 crore as equity.