Govt extends NELP-VII bid date to May 16

New Delhi, Apr 18 (UNI) The government today said the final bid submission date NELP-VII has been extended to May 16, ending the days of confusion over the fate of the auction of 57 oil and gas blocks in the country.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas will auction 57 oil and gas blocks under the seventh round of the New Exploration and Licensing Policy (NELP VII), for which the original bid submission deadline was April 11.

This was then postponed to April 25 to ensure that the delayed roadshows in Singapore were completed.

The NELP VII was launched on December 13, 2007 here, which was followed by road shows at Mumbai, London, Houston, Calgary, Singapore and Perth.

The Petroleum Ministry has been promising a seven-year tax holiday on oil and gas production, while marketing its NELP auctions globally.

Oil companies have welcomed the postponement of the deadline.

The domestic oil companies would now have more time to tie up with foreign oil majors for bidding for NELP VII blocks, an official statement said.

The Petroleum Ministry has said companies which have experience of producing oil and gas from deepwater areas around the world would be given higher points in the bid for deepwater blocks in the current auction.

None of the Indian oil majors, including ONGC and Reliance Industries, have experience of producing oil and gas from deepwater blocks. They will thus have to tie up with overseas oil majors to bid for 19 such blocks. There are 29 onland and nine shallow water blocks.

UNI SR BJR PM1836