The Hindu Business Line : Oil India looking to make a mark as offshore operator

New Delhi, Oct. 9 Oil India Ltd, after a successful listing on the bourses, is now looking at the eighth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-VIII) for making its presence felt as an operator in offshore acreages.

Currently, the public sector oil and gas exploration company has stake in 24 NELP blocks including offshore blocks. However, in offshore areas it only has participating interests. “We would like to see ourselves as an operator in offshore acreages,” Mr N. M. Borah, Chairman and Managing Director, OIL, told Business Line.

The company is in talks with domestic and overseas oil and gas explorers for a strategic alliance to participate in NELP VIII, the bids for which close on October 12.

“It has been our corporate philosophy to go for areas which are geographically challenging and offer higher degree of prospects. We also prefer to dilute our risk element in the exploration activity by getting a partner, who has technical expertise,” he said.

For NELP-VIII, the company has already identified the areas, and is now in dialogue with a number of companies for a possible partnership, he said. While not disclosing the names of the companies with which negotiations are going on, he said, “some of them are OIL’s existing partners. The alliance could be mix of both domestic and global companies and could vary from block to block.”

OIL already has alliance with Suntera (a joint venture between Sun Energy, the energy investment arm of the Sun Group, and ITERA, one of the largest oil and gas companies of Russia), GeoGlobal Resources (Canada), Shiv Vani, ONGC, GSPC, HPCL, GAIL (India), and Indian Oil Corporation for NELP blocks. Power utility major NTPC has also approached Oil India for a possible partnership in NELP-VIII.

Asked whether OIL, which has cash reserves of $1.5 billion and recently raised another Rs 2,800 crore through an IPO that closes on September 10, would be aggressive bidder, he said, “No, we would be cautious.”

On overseas opportunities, Mr Borah said, “we would be looking at acquiring producing assets. Possibility of acquiring a company also cannot be ruled out.” OIL in partnership has blocks in Libya, Gabon, Nigeria, Iran, Timor Leste, Yemen and Egypt.

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