The consortium of Indian Oil, ONGC Videsh and Oil India had decided against the purchase of an offered 11% shareholdings from Petronas of Malaysia over an oil project in Venezuela. The Malaysian state run oil company had decided to withdraw from the Carabobo-1 project after a dispute over terms with the state run oil explorer Petroleos de Venezuela SA.

OVL, which is the overseas unit of ONGC, owns an 11% stake in the project while Oil India and Indian Oil holding a 3.5% interest. Repsol SA, the Spanish oil firm, holds 11 % in the project while the remaining shares are held by the state owned Venezuelan oil firm.

All the partners in the project, which includes PdVSA, own a right of first refusal or pre-emption over the Petronas stake being offered for sale. Repsol too had refused to purchase the shares for sale.

According to one of the top officers of the Indian consortium, "We have decided against exercising the pre-emption rights. We intimated Petronas of our decision last month."