By an OGJ Online Correspondent
MUMBAI, June 1 -- India's state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp. and its partners have bagged 16 of the 23 exploration blocks offered in the second round of bidding under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP).
ONGC holds 100% of six of the 16 blocks awarded in NELP-II. Three blocks are onshore, seven are in the shallow offshore, and six are deepwater blocks.
ONGC on its own got both the shallow offshore blocks on offer in the Cauvery basin, besides taking the offshore blocks of KK-OSN-2000/1 in the Kerala-Konkan basin and MN-OSN-2000/1 in the Mahanadi basin.
The company also won the deepwater GS-DWN-2000/1 block in the Gujarat Saurashtra basin and KK-DWN-2000/4 in the Kerala-Konkan basin.
The remaining 10 blocks were won by ONGC in various consortiums with Indian Oil Corp. and/or Oil India Ltd. and Gas Authority of India Ltd.
A partnership of Reliance Industries Ltd. and Hardy Exploration & Production India Ltd. was awarded four blocks, though it bid for 15 (OGJ Online, May 7, 2001).
The Reliance-Hardy Oil combine was awarded KK-DWN-2000/1 and 2000/3 deepwater blocks in the Kerala-Konkan basin. It also got the AS-ONN-2000/1 block in Assam and the GS-OSN-2000/1 shallow offshore block in the Gujarat Saurashtra basin.
Niko Resources Ltd. of Calgary was awarded the CB-ONN-2000/2 onshore block in Gujarat, Oil India Ltd. got RJ-ONN-2000/1 in Rajasthan, and a consortium of Gujarat State Petroleum Corp., Joshi Technologies, and the Gas Authority of India Ltd. was awarded CB-ONN-2000/1 in Gujarat.
"The total estimated investment in all three phases would be about $780 million, including the minimum commitment in Phase-I of about $290 million," said Petroleum Minister Ram Naik. "Of course, the investment may go up, depending upon the results of the exploration work to be carried out by the companies."
