Foreign energy majors keen on NELP-VII

New Delhi, Jan 29 (UNI) India today invited US Energy majors to participate in the Seventh round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-VII) during a roadshow at Houston.

Global oil majors including ENI, Total, MOL, MITTAL, BP, StatoiHydro were among the 66 companies that have evinced keen interest in the NELP-VII.

After Road Shows in London on Thursday as part of India's promotional campaign to show case NELP-VII exploration blocks, another Road Show was held late last night at Houston(US).

Under the Seventh round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-VII) 57 blocks include 19 in deepwater, 9 in shallow water and 29 onland.

After the inaugural road show held at Mumbai on 8th January, 2008, the Houston road-show is the second one to be held abroad for NELP-VII. As many as 66 companies comprising 32 E&P, 18 service providers, six investment companies/bankers and 10 others participated in the Houston Road Show.

A high level delegation led by Minister of State for Petroleum&Natural Gas, Dinsha Patel which also included, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum&Natural Gas. M S Srinivasan, Director General, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, V K Sibal and Joint Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum&Natural Gas, Anil K Jain, are currently in Houston to promote NELP-VII to prospective E&P companies and investors.

Mr Patel emphasised the highly attractive opportunities being offered under NELP-VII impressed upon companies to participate in the bidding process to enter into a long term beneficial relationship by becoming part of India's growing and vibrant Petroleum Sector. He mentioned that the promotional road shows for NELP-VII will also be held at Calgary, Singapore, Perth and Dubai.

The minister invited US firms to make up for the lost opportunities in previous rounds by participating in the current offer. He pointed out that India is 5th largest consumer of energy in the world after China, Russia and Japan.

He also elaborated the various steps underway to bridge the gap between demand and supply of oil and gas like accelerating E&P efforts in Indian basins as well as acquiring oil assets abroad and harnessing alternative sources of energy like coal bed methane, gas hydrates, coal liquefaction, ethanol, bio-diesel, etc.

Referring to excellent business relationship between India and America, he informed that the trade between the two countries is valued at about 31 billion dollar which is about 10 per cent of India's total trade.

UNI RT/AK RAI2018