The Hindu Business Line : India kickstarts auction of oil, gas areas

MUMBAI: India on Saturday relaunched its largest ever auction of oil and gas exploration areas, aiming to attract $3-4 billion investment towards boosting energy security.

Petroleum Minister Mr Murli Deora kick-started the offer of 70 oil and gas exploration areas in the 8th edition of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) and 10 coal bed methane (CBM) blocks with the first roadshow here.

“NELP can be portrayed as India's success story in our endeavour to achieve self-sufficiency in hydrocarbons,” he said at the promotional roadshow.

Under NELP, 71 oil and gas discoveries have already been made in 21 exploration blocks by accretion of in place hydrocarbon reserves of more than 600 million tonnes of oil equivalent, he said.

“Major natural gas production in KG basin commenced from April. With this, the gas production in the country would be doubled, and in monetary terms it would be about $42 billion.” Total committed investment in NELP rounds for exploration so far is aroun d $10 billion, out of which $ 5.3 billion in exploration has been made. Further, $6.6 billion will be invested towards development of the Exploration and Production sector.

Mr Deora said the last date of bidding for the nation's largest ever auction of oil and gas blocks is October 12. - PTI

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