GAIL, Petrobras to jointly bid for NELP VI

GAIL (India) Ltd is teaming up with Brazilian energy giant Petrobras for the forthcoming NELP VI bidding, GAIL said in a statement on Thursday.

GAIL and Petrobas had signed a cooperation and confidentiality agreement last week, during the visit of the company's team to Brazil. Petrobras has also shown keen interest in partnering GAIL for various exploration projects, including blocks in Iran such as Block 12, the company said.

The development comes close on the heels of GAIL and its consortium partners signing an exploration and production sharing agreement (EPSA) for Block 56 in the Sultanate of Oman. GAIL has 25 per cent participating interest in the consortium.

Currently, GAIL has a total exploration acreage of 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 Pvt Ltd, ENI India Ltd, Jubiliant, GGR Canada, Daewoo, OVL, Korea Gas, Oilex, Videocon, BPCL and HPCL. GAIL's participating interests in these blocks vary between 10 to 80 per cent.

GAIL has been looking to widen its E&P horizons to include strategic regions beyond Indian shores. The company's earlier international foray in E&P in Myanmar has been quite successful, with large gas discoveries in the A1 & A3 blocks.

The company plans to aggressively pursue various exploration avenues and acquire E&P acreages in the international arena in partnership with international E&P players. GAIL has also been pursuing several "farm-in" opportunities worldwide to gain a strategic position in international E&P market.