Niko(Canada) bids for blocks in Mannar Basin

Canada: Niko Resources Ltd., a reputed Canadian company which has very strong operational activities in Asia has bidded for all three blocks of the Mannar basin. Calgary-headquartered Niko Resources Ltd. was the first foreign company to produce oil and gas in India.

Niko was a partner, with India's Reliance Industries, in the largest gas discovery in the world in 2002, tapping into a field in the Bay of Bengal that could hold as much as 14 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Niko, the only producer company in the Western hemisphere that is active in India, produced an average of 100 million cubic feet per day of natural gas in fiscal 2005 (year-end is March 31), an increase of 238% from the previous year.

Vice President Exploration of Niko Resources Keith Rawlinson was present to submit the offer on behalf of the company demonstrating how serious the company is with this opportunity.

Niko was the sole bidder for block three and therefore has now secured a confirmed entry to the Sri Lankan oil exploration activities. However company sources indicated that they need to have more than one block to make the huge investment commercially viable.

Whilst competing with India's ONGC Videsh and Cairnindia Ltd., Niko was confident of securing the other blocks considering their vast industry expertise and commercial strengths supported by their presence in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Geological studies of the US Geological Survey confirm that Sri Lanka has some of the best oil reserves in South Asia.

India is also successfully producing oil in South India from the same Cauvery Basin reserves of which Sri Lanka possesses the greater quantity.

India has discovered a significant amount of oil and natural gas reserves and already producing around 60 per cent of its oil needs and four of India's top six revenue-generating companies are already in the oil and natural gas business.

Some seismic tests conducted by the Norwegians also indicate the same reserves are extending off shore to the South of Sri Lanka, near Hambantota.