By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Nov. 18 -- The government of India is seeking bids for exploration and licenses to 34 blocks in its New Exploration Licensing Policy IX (NELP IX) round.
Nineteen of the blocks are onshore. Of the offshore blocks, eight are in deep water.
Four of the deepwater blocks and all the shallow-water blocks are in the Arabian Sea off western India. The other deepwater blocks are east of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands across the Bay of Bengal from eastern India.
The onshore blocks are in Gujarat, far western Rajasthan, northern Uttar Pradesh, eastern Madhya Pradesh, Assam, and Tripura.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas offers production-sharing contracts with as much as 100% participation by foreign companies.
The contracts provide for 7-year exploration phases for land and shallow-water blocks and 8-year exploration phases for deepwater and frontier blocks.
Terms include no signature, discovery, or production bonus and do not require state participation or carried interest by national oil companies.
Royalty rates are 12.5% for crude oil and 10% for natural gas on land blocks; 10% for crude and natural gas on shallow-water blocks; and 5% for the first 7 years of commercial production of oil and gas on deepwater blocks and 10% thereafter.
The water-depth threshold for deep water is 400 m.
The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons is accepting bids until Mar. 18, 2011.
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Photo from Petróleo Brasileiro SA.
