ONGC awaits instructions about restarting operation in Venezuela, sees positive movement

ONGC awaits U.S. sanction updates to restart Venezuelan operations, holding $550 million in dividends, while expanding projects elsewhere.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is awaiting instructions about restarting operations in Venezuela, with movement being in a positive direction, Director (Finance) Vivek Tongaonkar told investors in an analyst call on Friday (February 13, 2026).

“We understand the U.S. Government is progressively lifting sanctions [or] is in the process of liberalising trade from Venezuela,” he observed, adding, “We are awaiting those instructions as such but at the movement it is in a positive direction, and we are hopeful that we would be in a position to restart our operations once the on-ground and U.S. sanctions get lifted totally.”

Further, responding to a query, the Director (Finance) informed that the state-owned explorer has approximately $550 million worth of dividends stuck in the South American country.

For context, ONGC Videsh, the foreign exploration arm of the company, holds a 40% stake in the San Cristobal project and 11% stake in Carababo-1 project. 

Mr. Tangaonkar also told investors that ONGC was hopeful of repatriating their investments from its assets in Sakhalin (Russia). “We continue to move ahead with help from the Indian and Russian government,” he stated, adding, “We are hopeful that during this coming [financial] year, we should be in a position to have the share of our held-up dividends. Overall, production continues to happen [at Sakhalin].”

Earlier, he had informed that ONGC continues to retain 20% stake in the project.