Ranjit Rath, Chairman, Oil India, says “after economic sanctions against Russia came in, about $150 million from Oil India point of view is lying in one of the State Bank of India’s branches in Moscow. It is a matter of time before we are able to negotiate and get the money repatriated. Multiple channels of discussion processes are being evaluated including the legal options alternatives, G2G engagements. So, it is absolutely not a concern.”
On Oil India’s investment in current yearExploration, development and production would encompass about 7,500 crore investment on a standalone basis from Oil India Limited for the current year.
Since crude prices are increasing and have gone beyond $90 per barrel, and we are expecting that the government will increase windfall gain taxes on crude production going forward. Do you think it is impacting your overall revenues?
As far as crude oil production is concerned, our focus is to enhance production and that would add to the revenue kitty. The price hike in terms of international benchmarking and the consequential taxes or levies are a given. Our focus would always remain on physical performance.
What is the status of your investment in Russia? Is it a concern for you?Russian investment categorically is not a concern. There are two producing fields, dividend paying. We have already got about 80% of the initial capex that was invested as part of our dividend. Initially the repatriation was pretty smooth. We were getting the dividend back