Houston roadshow for NELP-VIII and CBM-IV a big draw
22 Aug 2009
A total of 52 companies, including 27 oil exploration and prospecting (E&P) companies and 25 non-E&P companies - both Indian and overseas - participated in the second roadshow for the NELP-VIII and CBM-IV, held in Houston, US, on 20 August.
Some of the major E&P companies which participated in the roadshow included Conoco Philips, Noble Energy, Exxon Mobil, Petrotel, BHP Billiton, Devon Energy, Hess Corporation, BP, BG, Apache, TOTAL, RIL and ONGC.
India is offering 70 oil and gas blocks under the eighth round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) and 10 coal bed methane blocks (CMB) under the fourth round of bidding for global competitive bidding.
The roadshow was part of a series of promotional exercises being organised by the government at various places, starting with the one in Mumbai on 8 August, inviting exploration and production companies and prospective investors to avail of the highly attractive investment opportunities being offered under NELP-VIII and CBM-IV.
A roundtable conference was also held by US-India Business Council and the Department of Energy of the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, on 21 August, at the Petroleum Club, Houston.
Seven-year tax holiday
"The policy environment is attractive and an investor friendly production sharing contract (PSC) regime exists," minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Jitin Prasada told the participants. "The Government of India has assured seven-year tax holiday to commercial production of both oil and gas from blocks under NELP-VIII and CBM-IV bid rounds," he added.