New Delhi, July 06: ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), has bagged an oil exploration block in Syria. OVL, in partnership with US firm IPR International, has been awarded the onland block 24 against stiff competition from Chinese and European firms, company sources said.

A medium sized oil discovery was earlier made in block 24 but the field was hived off from the original block and is not part of the acreage awarded to OVL.

Sources said the block holds good prospects and peak production could be as high as 3 million tonnes a year.
OVL has 60 per cent stake while the IPR international holds the remainder. The two have committed to invest about 7.5 million dollar in the first exploration phase in which two exploratory wells would be drilled and 500 linke km of seismic data collected. Bureau Report