The Hindu Business Line : GAIL to bid aggressively

After starting off at a lower scale, the gas transmission and marketing company GAIL (India) Ltd is now looking at aggressively participating in oil and gas exploration under the sixth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP).

The bids for NELP VI close on September 15. Indications are that the company is likely to bid for more than 20 blocks both in offshore and onshore, but the final decision on bidding would depend on the prospects of the blocks.

Tie-ups

GAIL, which has adopted a consortium approach, proposes to bid for onshore, offshore and deepwater blocks, official sources said. The company proposes to join hands with like-minded willing partners, which could either be foreign or Indian exploration companies, sources told Business Line. For the purpose, the company is likely to tie-up with ENI of Italy.

Besides, the company has already entered into an understanding with Brazil's Petrobras earlier this year. However, it may not be necessary that Petrobras would be the company's partner in all its bids, sources added. The company is also in talks with some of the other players including Oman's Petrogas E&P LLC, and Australia's Tap Oil Ltd.

NELP VI would be the most ambitious round so far for GAIL as this would be the highest number of blocks the company would be bidding for. In NELP V the company had bid for eight blocks and won three. While under NELP I round the company was awarded two blocks, in NELP II it won four blocks. NELP III saw the company winning none and NELP IV saw GAIL being awarded two blocks.

Currently, GAIL's total exploration acreage is 91,350 sq km with the participating interest in 16 exploration blocks. Of these, seven are on-land blocks and nine are offshore blocks.

The various consortium partners of the company in the 16 blocks are ONGC, GSPC, Gazprom, OIL, IOC, Hardy Exploration & Production, Enpro Finance Private Ltd, ENI India Ltd, Jubiliant, GGR Canada, Daewoo, OVL, Korea Gas, Oilex, Videocon, BPCL and HPCL. GAIL's participating interests in these blocks varies between 10 to 80 per cent.

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