The Hindu Business Line : Oil majors keen on new exploration blocks

Exploration record
Under NELP-V round, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbon had sold data worth Rs 20 crore, which has been surpassed under the new round.
In NELP-VI, India expects to see investments of over $7 billion in the first round of exploration activities.

THE MINISTER for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Murli Deora, and the Secretary, Mr M.S. Srinivasan, addressing a press conference on NELP-VI in the Capital on Tuesday. — Kamal Narang

New Delhi , April 11

Global energy majors such as Chevron and ExxonMobil have shown keen interest in the new exploration blocks offered by India.

The Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Murli Doera, who has just returned from a series of roadshows to promote 55 explorations blocks offered for bidding under the sixth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) and the third round of Coal Bed Methane (CBM), expressing optimism said global energy majors could either bid alone or jointly with other companies in exploring oil and gas in the country.

The Minister told presspersons, "For the first time all major oil companies including Chevron and ExxonMobil have expressed interest in acquiring data packages of India's sedimentary basins.

Given that over Rs 40-crore worth of data has already been sold to companies worldwide, we are optimistic of achieving a milestone of Rs 100 crore through sale of data."

Under NELP-V round, which concluded in December last year with the award and signing of product sharing contracts for 25 exploration blocks, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbon had sold data worth Rs 20 crore, which has been surpassed under the new round.

Investment avenues

In fact, some of the global majors are in the country to study investment opportunities, including in Greenfield refinery projects, the Petroleum Secretary, Mr M.S. Srinivasan, said.

He, however, declined to disclose the companies that are studying investment opportunities. In a follow-up to the roadshow in London, some of the companies are in India to study investment opportunities including in the upcoming Bina Refinery in Madhya Pradesh.

Reasons cited

Asked what could be the reason for such keenness by the energy majors to invest in Indian exploration activities, he said gas and oil discoveries in the last five years and India's investor friendly rules were among the reasons for such interest.

"In the last five years, we have been able to add 650 million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas (O+OEG) to our in-place reserves.

Out of this, we should be able to recover about 50 per cent of the reserves," he said, adding that on a conservative basis at least 30 per cent or 250-mt O+OEG should be recoverable.

$7-b investment likely

Besides, most of the new finds in India have yielded gas reserves. In NELP-VI, with majority of the blocks being offshore, India expects to see investments of over $7 billion in the first round of exploration activities, which would be significantly more than about $1.5-2-billion investment flow expected in the NELP-V, Mr Srinivasan said.

In addition, encouraging reserves have been found in the blocks awarded for exploration of CBM. "From next year, our first commercial production of CBM is set to begin and yield 20 million cubic metres per day of methane gas which is about 3.5 mt of oil equivalent," he said.