Lukewarm response to Indian oil and gas blocks auction
12 Oct 2009
The 70-odd oil and gas blocks that India auctioned in the eighth round of the New Exploration Policy today met with poor response, with investors rejecting nearly half of the blocks on offer.
The response to the auction has also been muted by their valuations and an ongoing row over the pricing and sale of natural gas produced by Reliance Industries from the east cost offshore gas blocks owned by the company (See: RIL surrenders 14 'failed' blocks to government from NELP-VII).
The auction comes amidst news that leading Indian private sector explorer Reliance Industries has surrendered 14 of the oil and gas blocks awarded to it under earlier auctions, for lack of commercially exploitable reserves.
Nearly half of the 70 oil and gas exploration blocks on offer under the New Exploration Policy VIII found no bidders while 36 of the blocks received 76 bids, DN Narasimha Raju, joint secretary in the oil ministry, said after the deadline for submitting bids ended at 12 noon today.
BHP Billiton is reported to have won three of the shallow-water blocks on offer in the west cost, in the Mumbai basin.
Cairn India, a unit of Cairn Energy, provisionally won a deepwater block in the Mumbai basin while ONGC and its partners together won seven deepwater blocks, including one in the KG basin in the east cost where Reliance made India's largest gas find.
