Sunday, November 27 2005 19:16 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Guwahati: The Centre has decided to form a new entity under the Oil India Limited (OIL) which would be given equal financial power as that of the Oil and Natural Gas Comission (ONGC) Videsh limited to acquire exploration and producing properties abroad.

According to official sources here today, this was decided by the Group Of Ministers constituted by the Union Cabinet which comprises Union Finance minister P Chidambaram, Peroleum minister Manishankar Aiyar and Union minister for Public Enterprises Santosh Mohan Dev recently.

This would give a tremendous boost to OIL's efforts in the coming months in their overseas operation in Iran, Cote de Ivore, Sudan, Russia and Libya.

Chairman of the Indian Oil Corporation S Behuria and chairman and managing director of the OIL R K Dutta are proceeding to Libya for signing the latest production sharing agreement and also to initiate a dialogue for a discovered field, the sources said.

With the country's self sufficiency in oil only around 30 per cent which is expected to deteriorate further, the Centre has formed a high level committee on "synergy in energy" which recommended that at least 15 per cent of oil imports of India should be through the equity oil route in the next couple of years, the sources said.