Standard Post with Image

NELP IX: ONGC Bags Four Blocks

  • Public sector upstream company ONGC has bagged four out of 16 blocks awarded under the ninth round oil and gas acreages auction as an operator.Besides Oil India Ltd and GAIL (India), new and small players like Sankalp Oil & Natural Resources, Deep Energy LLC, Focus Energy, Pratibha Oil and Natural Gas Pvt Ltd and Pan India Consultants also emerged as winners.The Government is expecting investments close to $600 million from the ninth round.

  • Under the ninth bid round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-IX), the Government had received bids for 33 blocks out of 34 offered. West Coast was the most sought after.Approval for six blocks is pending, and will be considered for award separately, the Petroleum Secretary, Mr G.C. Chaturvedi, said.He also said that 10 blocks — seven deepwater and three shallow water — have not been awarded as the bids for these blocks were rejected due to low percentage of profit petroleum offered by the bidders to the Government.

  • Further, one block CB-ONN-2010/7 has not been awarded as the single bid received for this block has been rejected due to inadequate net worth of the bidder.Mr S. Jaipal Reddy, Petroleum Minister, hoped to complete the process for the pending blocks at the earliest. He also said that his Ministry will start work on the tenth round of auctions.The Government is having a close look at the NELP provisions making it more transparent, automatic and less intrusive.

Source