NELP India to offer 100 oil blocks in NELP VIII

Unperturbed by the global economic crisis, India will next month launch its biggest-ever auction of oil exploration blocks with about 100 areas likely to be offered for bidding.

“Next month, we will come out with the next round of bidding (of NELP) with about 100 blocks,” Petroleum Secretary RS Pandey said at the function organised to inaugurate the Mundra-Delhi pipeline. Pandey said the round seven of the New Exploration and Licensing Policy (NELP) saw a maximum number of blocks being awarded and NELP VIII will be even larger.

“In NELP VII, we signed contracts for 44 oil and gas blocks.”

Later talking to reporters, he said, the government was keen to keep economic activities alive during the global downturn so that the investments take place. “It is more important in slowdown that we generate maximum economic activity,” he said.

Pandey, however, said there could be resource crunch for international oil companies due to global credit squeeze. “The major investments in NELP blocks come only after 4-5 years of exploration. And we think things will improve by then,” Pandey added.

Under the first six rounds of NELP, a total investment of $8.3 billion in exploration of oil and gas was committed, out of which abut $4.5 billion has already been incurred on exploration and $1.4 billion on the development of discoveries. A further $1.5 billion exploration spend is budgeted for NELP VII. So far, 68 oil and gas discoveries in 19 blocks with inplace reserves of 500 million tonnes of oil and oil-equivalent gas had been established.