Shirish Nadkarni
OGJ Correspondent
MUMBAI, Sept. 21 -- Although India's sixth bidding round under its New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-VI) failed to attract several top international oil and gas majors, India's Director-General of Hydrocarbons V.K. Sibal said the number of bids for NELP-VI blocks were the highest ever received.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas received 165 bids by Sept. 15, the closing date for the 55 exploration and production blocks on offer (OGJ, Sept. 18, 2006, p. 28). The blocks cover an area of 352,000 sq km. Three deepwater blocks—two in the Kerala-Konkan region and one in the Andamans—failed to receive any bids.
Energy giants that submitted bids in NELP-VI included BP PLC and British Gas PLC of the UK, Italy's Eni SPA, Malaysia's Petronas, and Total SA of France. No bids came from US companies Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil Corp., Russia's OAO Gazprom, or Royal Dutch Shell PLC.
NELP-VI offered 25 onshore blocks, 24 deep-sea blocks, and 4 shallow-water blocks. Twenty of the offshore blocks are off the east coast, three are off the west coast, and one lies in Andaman offshore. Four shallow-water blocks are in the western offshore and the remaining two are off the east coast.
"The evaluation of bids will be undertaken immediately," said Anil Razdan, additional secretary in the Petroleum & Natural Gas Ministry. "The blocks are likely to be awarded by Nov. 15, and contracts are expected to be signed by January 2007."
Interest in bids high
"The response is very good," said Sibal. "We offered the highest-ever acreage in this round. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is expecting at least $2 billion of committed investment in the first phase of exploration."
Sibal said that, based on conservative estimates of 20-25% success ratio in the blocks, expected investment could be $8-10 billion in all three exploration phases.
During this round, 310 data packages amounting to 786 million rupees ($17.6 million) were sold, against the previous best sale of 227.5 million rupees during NELP-V.
"A total of 35 foreign and 31 Indian companies bid either on their own or as consortia," Sibal said. "Among the foreign companies, about 20 were new ones. While 39 blocks attracted multiple bids, 13 received single bids."
Indian state-run Oil & Natural Gas Corp. bid for the maximum number of 45 blocks, mainly as part of a consortium. Reliance Industries Ltd., Mumbai, bid solo for 20 blocks and in partnership with Oil India Ltd. for one block.
Reliance Natural Resources joined with Naftogaz of Ukraine and Polish Oil & Gas Co. SA, Warsaw, for 12 blocks.
Other companies that bid included Essar Oil Ltd., Mumbai; Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd.; Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd.; Oil India Ltd.; Cairn Energy PLC, Edinburgh; Assam Co.; Adani Port Infrastructure; Beach Petroleum NL, Adelaide; Canoro Resources of Canada; EOG Resources Inc., Houston; Geoglobal Resources (India) Inc.; Indian Oil Corp. Ltd.; Jubilant Oil & Gas Pvt. Ltd.; Joshi Technology International Inc., Tulsa; M3 Energy Berhad; Pan Orient Energy Corp., Calgary; Petrogas E&P LLC, Ruwi, Oman; India's Prize Petroleum Co. Ltd., Premier Oil PLC, London; Santos International, Adelaide, Australia; Tap Oil Ltd., Perth; Valdel Oil & Gas; and Zakros Holdings Ltd. of Cyprus.
Sibal earlier this year said that NELP-VI likely would be the last bidding round under the NELP program, which was established in January 1999. It may be replaced in the future by an open acreage nomination system (OGJ, Aug. 14, 2006, p. 30).
