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Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal's Vedanta Ltd. has recognised an impairment charge of about ₹379 crore ($39.8 million) after state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. took over a disputed offshore oil and gas block in western India's Cambay basin that Vedanta had operated for years.
The charge, disclosed in Vedanta's regulatory filings, covers assets and receivables linked to the CB-OS-02 block. Vedanta cited "recent judicial developments," the absence of a valid production sharing contract and uncertainty over whether it can recover those assets and receivables. It stopped recognising revenue and expenses from the block from July 22.
ONGC said in its quarterly filing that it is now running the field. "The company, being a nominee of the government, is carrying out operations of the block CB-OS-02," it said.
Court fight
The production sharing contract for the block expired on June 29, 2023. Vedanta, the operator, and its partners applied for an extension on June 28, 2021, under the government's 2017 extension policy. Vedanta's oil unit held a 40% participating interest, ONGC held 50% and Invenire Petrodyne Ltd. held the remaining 10%.
The government declined the extension in a letter dated Sept. 19, 2025, and directed that the block be handed to ONGC. Vedanta challenged the decision in the Delhi High Court three days later and won an interim order to keep the status quo.
On July 22, 2026, a single-judge bench of the court dismissed Vedanta's petition and lifted the interim protection. ONGC took over the block the same day and applied for a petroleum lease on July 28.
Vedanta has appealed to a division bench of the Delhi High Court. "The hearings have concluded on 1st October, and the matter is reserved for judgment," the company said in its filing. Both companies said the final outcome of the litigation and its financial impact cannot yet be determined.
ONGC said decommissioning costs will be met from the block's site restoration fund and that it will carry other petroleum liabilities for as long as it operates the field.
Agarwal's oil business
Vedanta entered oil and gas in 2011 when it bought control of Cairn India, which it later merged into the parent company. The business has since faced disputes over contract extensions and large write-downs, including a ₹20,000 crore ($2.1 billion) impairment on oil assets in 2015.
Agarwal, 72, grew up in Patna, in the eastern state of Bihar, and started out as a scrap metal dealer in Mumbai before building Vedanta into one of India's largest natural resources groups. Its operations stretch from zinc and aluminium in India to copper in Zambia through Konkola Copper Mines. Forbes lists him among India's billionaires.
Figures were converted at ₹95.2 to the dollar.
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