ONGC, partners gets 20 blocks under NELP-VII

New Delhi: Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and its partners have bagged 20 out of the 44 blocks that have been awarded under the seventh round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-VII).

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), decided to award 44 out of the 45 oil and gas blocks to the first ranked/sole bidders, while not awarding the Mumbai Basin Deep Water-2005/8 block to the sole bidder, Cairn Energy India Ltd-Cairn India Ltd (CEIL-CIL).

“In view of the lowest score in the composite criteria for evaluation, accepting the (sole) bid by the CEIL-CIL consortium would be detrimental to the Government’s interest in future in terms of profit petroleum,” an official release stated.

The Centre had launched the NELP-VII on December 13, last year, offering 57 exploration blocks, which included 19 deep-water, nine shallow-water and 29 on-land blocks. The bids were opened on June 30. In all, 181 bids were received from 95 companies for 45 blocks (12 deep-water, seven shallow-water and 26 on-land).

The bids were, on September 30, considered by the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (CoS), which made recommendations to the CCEA for award of the blocks.

Of the 20 blocks that ONGC and its partners bagged, three were for deep-water, five were for shallow-water and the balance 12 for on-land blocks. The second biggest winner was the first-timer BHP Billiton Petroleum International-GVK Infrastructure Oil & Gas consortium, which was awarded seven deep-water blocks.

Reliance Industries, in alliance with BP Exploration (Alpha) Ltd), could manage to win a sole Krishna Godavari deep-water block-2005/2. Others who were awarded blocks included Adani Welspun Exploration Ltd and Essar Exploration & Production-Nobel Energy International (one shallow-water block each), Indian Oil Corporation (two on-land), GeoGlobal Resources (Barbados) Inc (two on-land), Mercator Petroleum (two on-land) and Omkar Natural Resources (two on-land).

“The Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) for the 44 blocks are likely to be signed within a month. Total investment commitment for phase-I of exploration of these blocks is about $1.5 billion. It is expected that the award of the blocks under NELP-VII will result in more discoveries, further investments in development of oil fields, leading to higher reserves accretion and eventually production of oil and gas,” the release added.