Shares in the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) rose in value by 1.6 per cent on the back of reports revealing that the company is close to securing a deal with the Iranian government for the development rights of a significant gas find.

According to the reports, the firm's overseas arm, ONGC Videsh, in partnership with India Oil and Oil India has proposed to invest as much as $3 billion in developing the Farsi block within the country.

This would enable it to bring the 12.8 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas reserves it located in the block last year within the next three or four years.

The news comes just days after ONGC announced that, along with Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals (MRPL) it is to withdraw from the ongoing Kakinada Refinery & Petrochemicals and the Kakinada Special Economic Zone (KSEZ) projects.

In addition, the ONGS's recently reported that its net profits for the quarter ending March 2008 were 21.16 per cent down in comparison to the same period of 2007.