The joint venture was approved by the Centre some time ago and the two companies were expected to submit the commercial bid in July. Any commercial activity in Iraq, however, can only begin after the United Nations imposed sanctions on that country have been lifted.

The Tuba discovered field is among the two properties that ONGC Videsh is keen on, the other being an exploration block. While the national oil company has decided to team up with Reliance Industries for the Tuba field,it plans to bid for the exploration block on its own.

According to ONGC sources, ``after successful negotiations of the terms and conditions of the production sharing contract and technical evaluation,'' ONGC Videsh had submitted its commercial bid in partnership with Reliance industries. The partners willshare the profits and the liabilities of the unincorporated joint venture.

The Tuba field is expected to yield 12 million tonne of crude oil when on stream. The exploration block, ONGC Videsh is bidding for, spans across 12000 sq km of area, but the oil bearing potentials of the block are not yet certain.

Property acquisitions in the oil rich Gulf are important for ONGC, which has a directive from the Centre to hunt for equity oil abroad. The ONGC has for some time been trying to impress upon the Centre the necessity of political support in its ventures abroad, particularly Iraq and the CIS countries.

During the Indo-Iraq talks in the capital in August, ONGC Videsh, along with Indian Oil Corporation and Engineers India Limited were nominated to a joint working group with Iraq, that will identify areas of bilateral cooperation in the oil sector. The Iraqi delegation, led by that country's minister for oil Amir Mohammad Rashid, actually seemed favourably disposed towards ONGC Videsh's endeavours toacquire Tuba and an exploration bloc in Iraq.

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by the ministry of oil of Iraq and the Union ministry of petroleum and natural gas said, ``It was noted that Indian companies have offered bids for the development of a discovered field and for an exploration block in Iraq,'' adding that the Iraqis would ``endeavour to take a decision on these offers subject to technical and financial competitiveness of the Indian offer.''

ONGC Videsh has oil exploration and production projects worth Rs 410 crore on hand during the current year alone, of which anticipated investments in Iraq will be Rs 30 crore ($ 7.5 million). The bulk of the investment this year, roughly Rs 200 crore, will be in Vietnam, where ONGC Videsh has discovered gas along with British Petroleum and Statoil.

The ONGC's overseas arm plans to invest roughly Rs 50 crore in developing a field in Russia, another Rs 50 crore in exploring for oil Azerbaijan and roughly Rs 16 crore in an exploration block inKazakhstan. Most of these projects are awaiting procedural approvals or government nods.

In Iraq, ONGC's endeavour's are further subject to the United Nation's decision to lift the trade embargo on Iraq.