Govt to offer 60 blocks under NELP VII

New Delhi, Nov 13 (UNI) The government today said it will offer 60 exploration blocks under the VIIth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-VII), which will be launched by December-January.

''The blocks would comprise 30 onshore, 15 shallow water and 15 deep water and ultra deep water in both east and west coast offshore area,'' Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said at the annual Economic Editors' Conference.

He also added that launch of coal bed metahane (CBM IV) has started in consultation with the Ministry of Coal.

Out of 26 CBM exploration blocks under operation, six thousand cubic feet (TCF) reserves have been established in four CBM blocks. First commercial production of CBM has commenced from July 2007.

He further said the public sector refineries of HPCL, BPCL and IOC are implementing projects for creation of additional capacity in existing refineries to the extent of 8.23 MMTPA by December 2009.

In April-September 2007, India exported 19.9 MMT of petroleum products, valued over 12 billion dollars, which marked about 28 per cent increase over corresponding exports last year.

On Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline, the Minister said before the next tripartite meeting, a bilateral meeting between India and Pakistan is necessary to decide on transportation tariff, transit fees etc and a common stand on the price revision clause proposed by Iran. ''We are finalising the dates for such a meeting,'' Mr Deora said.

On Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, the next Steering Committee Meeting (SCM) of the participating countries is scheduled to be held on November 28-29, 2007 in Islamabad, the minister added.

UNI