Reliance, OVL bid for oil blocks in Myanmar

Bidders will have to team up with at least one Myanmarese company to bid for shallow water blocks while they could do so independently for deepwater blocks

Reliance Industries has bid for three oil and gas blocks and ONGC Videsh Ltd for two in Myanmar's maiden offshore licensing round.

Besides RIL and OVL, state-owned explorer Oil India Ltd and gas utility GAIL India have bid for three exploration blocks each in separate joint venture with local companies, according to the Myanmar Ministry of Energy.

Cairn India, which was among the 61 firms pre-qualified to bid for 11 shallow water and 19 deep water blocks on offer in an international tender, however, did not bid.

Bids for the licensing round closed last week.

The Ministry declared the companies bidding but did not reveal which company has bid for which block.

Bidders were allowed to submit a maximum of three bids each. They had to necessarily team up with at least one Myanmarese company to bid for shallow water blocks while they could do so independently for the deepwater blocks.

GAIL bid for three blocks with Kris Energy while OIL teamed up with Mercator Petroleum and Oil Max Energy Pte Ltd to bid for three blocks.

The bidding pattern indicates that RIL and OVL may have bid for deepwater blocks while OIL and GAIL may have opted for shallow water areas.

According to the Ministry, global energy giant Shell bid for three blocks in partnership with Japan's Mitsui Oil Exploration Company while Chevron, ExxonMobil, Total of France and Malaysia's Petronas bid for two blocks each.

Norway's Statoil in partnership with ConocoPhillips has bid for two blocks while BG Group and Woodside Energy have together submitted bids for four blocks via two partnerships.

Spain's Repsol bid for three blocks while Eni of Italy and Thailand's state-owned PTT Exploration and Production put in quotes for one block each.

The 11 shallow water blocks offered in the round comprise three blocks in the Rakhine Offshore Area, three in the Moattama Offshore Area and five in the Tanintharyi Offshore Area. Of the 19 deepwater blocks, 12 are in the Rakhine area, three in Moattama and five in Tanintharyi.

None of the other Asian national oil companies -- China National Petroleum Corp, Korea National Oil Corp, Korea Gas Corp and Japan's JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp who had been been shortlisted, bid for any of the block.

Myanmar is also offering 18 blocks in its second onshore licensing round, for which OVL, Cairn, OIL, and HPCL-owned Prize Petroleum are among the 59 companies pre-qualified.

OVL and GAIL already have stakes in A-1 and A-3 blocks in Myanmar, which started production last month, and they are looking at consolidating their position in the energy-rich nation.