New Delhi, Dec 17 :    New Delhi, Dec 17:  The ONGC management has struck a compromise with the group of advisers to break the stalemate over the re-development of Bombay High North. It has agreed to appoint the French company CFP to recommend Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods for Bombay High, even as ONGC goes ahead with implementing its own prescriptions. The French company's recommendations could be implemented in the second phase. The re-development plan is expected to be cleared by the ONGC board shortly. ONGC and its consultant, Gaffney, Cline and Associates, had decided on a water injection method to enhance oil recovery in Bombay High, convinced that this is the best method for the purpose. But the advisory council attached to the directorate of hydrocarbons differed with this prescription and recommended polymer injection as the right solution. All the members of this council are geologists who are not considered competent to advise on reservoir behaviour. However, the most articulate among the advisers did not consider Gaffney, Cline and Associates all that competent, preferring the French company.The ONGC management thought the best way to break the stalemate was to accommodate his preference. ONGC had CFP of France, a Total group company,as consultant for Bombay High for nearly ten years. After the termination of the consultancy contract, CFP tried to stage a comeback with a report that ONGC has lost considerable oil during the period when it was not the consultant. With it began the process of maligning the previous management. However, the present consultant in Bombay High did not agree with the view that reservoir problems were due to mismanagement. Such reservoir problems had been witnessed in almost all major oil fields, it stated in a report. Complicating matters is the presence of powerful lobbies both within and outside the country, trying to scuttle any plan to increase production from Bombay High and to project that only multinationals can do the job. They almost succeeded when Captain Satish Sharma was the minister for petroleum. After ONGC rejected the unsolicited offer of Occidental, Sharma forced ONGC to invite a limited tender for a production sharing arrangement. It shortlisted five bidders, none of which could make any commitment about the quantum of increase in crude production. In recent years, Marathon Oil Company, through a retired Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer, had been lobbying for an entry into Bombay High. He tried to influence former petroleum minister Vazhapadi Ramamurthy. However, the present incumbent Ram Naik does not seem amenable to pressures from multinationals.