The Hindu Business Line : Oil India, IOC will take local partner for Nigeria blocks

New Delhi April 24 The consortium of Oil India Ltd and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, which is scouting for oil and gas assets overseas, is planning to piggyback on a local Nigerian company to participate in the latest round of auctions in that country.

The consortium would like to partner a company that has won preferential rights to bid for a Nigerian exploration block on the basis of its promise to invest in infrastructure development of the African nation.

The OIL-IOC combine has already roped in a strategic partner Suntera, with which it had acquired an onshore block in Nigeria earlier. Suntera is the joint venture of Sun Energy Resources (a subsidiary of Sun Group) and Russia's Itera Group.

"We would prefer to take a partner who has been extended the preferential rights to bid in the latest round," Mr M.R. Pasrija, Chairman and Managing Director of OIL, told Business Line. OIL has acquired 25 per cent participating interest in Suntera Nigeria OPL 205 Ltd, a subsidiary of Suntera Resources Ltd, which holds interest in the onland block OPL-205. Recently, 10 foreign and local companies are reported to have been given preferential rights for 20 blocks under Nigeria's right of first refusal (RoFR) system for the country's latest bidding round. Under this system, bidding companies commit to invest in infrastructure development in exchange for choice exploration blocks.

Among the 10 firms winning preferential rights to bid for Nigerian exploration blocks are two Chinese energy companies CNOOC Ltd and China National Petroleum Corp. Others receiving first refusal rights for certain blocks included Spain's Repsol, UK's Centrica, ONGC-Mittal Energy Ltd, Malaysia's Petronas and South Korea's Korea National Oil Corp.

Nigeria is auctioning a total of 45 exploration blocks of which 11 are in deep water offshore, 10 are in shallow water on the continental shelf, 13 are onshore in the Niger Delta, and another 11 are located in inland basins. The deadline to register bids is May 2. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation will publish qualified bidders on May 7.