Steel King Laxmi Mittal is getting business blows from his home country. Earlier, it came from steel sector and now it is coming from oil sector of India.

Mittal Steel’s contract for a joint venture with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) was already not going smooth. Now, the Indian Oil Corporation is said to break the contract with Mital on a technical ground.

The Indian Oil has said that ONGC-Mittal Energy Services Ltd (OMESL) is untested in the field. This is not as perfect to get any kind of transport crude or products for the company.

The OMESL does not even have the certifications from parent companies. The Mittal group and ONGC have only offered comfort letters to the OMESL without any guarantee for its business activities.

According to a senior oil ministry official, a company should has at least three years’ experience to go for tenders floated by state-owned companies for shipping in crude or gas and exporting products. Earlier, on the same ground, Reliance Industries Ltd, had been denied business by Indian oil some years ago.

On the other hand, the other venture between both, ONGC-Mittal Energy Ltd, has bagged a productive oilfield in Nigeria. Further, the joint venture is trying to get equity in Kazakhstan’s Satpayev oilfield too.

The Times of India had reported on August 20, Lakshmi Mittal had sent an SOS to the oil ministry referring ONGC’s was dragging on the question to register the trading arm with state-owned refiners.

Earlier the ONGC had stooped the deputation of its employee to the joint venture and ended OMEL interviews for fresh appointments.

All these development are clearly showing that Mittal is not getting it smooth for its business plans in India.

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