The Hindu Business Line : NELP VII: Over 60 cos take part in US roadshow

New Delhi, Jan 29 The second overseas roadshow to promote oil and gas exploration blocks, put on offer for the latest licensing rounds at Houston (US), has attracted over 60 participating companies.

According to an official statement issued here, “as many as 66 companies, comprising 32 exploration and production companies, 18 service providers, 6 investment companies/bankers and 10 others participated in the Houston roadshow.”

Blocks on offer

After a successful campaign to showcase the 7th New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-VII) round on January 24, another roadshow abroad was held on Monday at Houston. Under the seventh round 57 blocks — 19 in deepwater, 9 in shallow water and 29 onland — have been put on offer. As of today, 13 companies have already booked for NELP-VII data viewing at the London data room. The major companies include ENI, Total, MOL, Mittal, BP, StatoilHydro, and Harvest Natural Resources.

NELP promotion

A high-level delegation led by Mr Dinsha Patel, Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas, is currently in Houston to promote NELP-VII to prospective Exploration and Production (E&P) companies and investors.

He mentioned that promotional roadshows for NELP-VII will also be held at Calgary, Singapore, Perth and Dubai. He invited US firms to make up for the lost opportunities in previous rounds by participating in the current offer. Some of the major stakeholders in India’s upstream petroleum sector namely, the BG Group, ONGC, Cairn Energy and Reliance Industries Ltd, made their presentations during the roadshow about their experiences, plans and the visions their companies had regarding India’s petroleum sector, especially the upstream sector.

Apart from them, for the first time in an NELP promotional roadshow, a presentation by leading Indian offshore service providers was also included to assure the investors of the growing availability of services in India.

Data viewing facilities

To facilitate data viewing by E&P companies, the Government would also be opening data centres at Noida/Delhi, Houston, London, Calgary and Perth. Companies can view the NELP-VII data for at any of these centres as well as online and thereafter may also purchase data. Data viewing facilities at London will be available until the end of March.

The bid-closing date for NELP-VII is April 11. The Government is committed to complete evaluation, awarding and signing of production sharing contracts within a stipulated time frame. The whole process would be completed in a transparent manner in three-four months from the bid-closing date as demonstrated in past rounds of NELP, the statement said.