By IANS
Jaipur : The state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and the Rajasthan government are expected to hold fresh talks for the proposed Rs.100 billion ($2.3 billion) refinery in Barmer next month, officials said Monday.
Officials said that the government has also decided to utilize the services of Subir Raha, former ONGC chairman, as its mediator to negotiate with the oil major.
Cairn India has recently discovered presence of hydrocarbons in Barmer, some 550 kms from here. State government officials said that talks are to be held in the second week of June.
"The discussions will try to explore the possibilities of the project along with certain new set of conditions," officials said, adding the state government has already started the spadework for the proposed deliberations.
The project got the green signal during Raha's tenure at ONGC, which had earlier demanded a package of incentives that was more than twice the estimated project cost of the refinery.
The state government wanted to know from ONGC why it was demanding such a huge package, following which the idea of setting up the refinery was dropped since it would otherwise be uneconomical given the crude quality, officials said.