India to Announce Bidding Results for 45 Oil Blocks in August

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The bid on the 57 oil blocks offered to both domestic and international oil companies under the seventh round of India's New Exploration Licensing Policy closed June 30. India plans to reveal the results of the bids by August 31. Twelve of the 57 oil blocks had not received any bids by the time the bidding process was closed.

To streamline the decision-making process, India's Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), acting under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, sped up the bid evaluation process, carrying out initial evaluations of the bids as soon as they were received. DGH plans to announce its final decisions by the end of August and expects contracts be signed by September 30.

The 45 blocks that received bids include 12 deepwater blocks, seven shallow water blocks and 26 onshore blocks. The 12 blocks that did not receive any bids include seven deepwater blocks, two shallow water blocks and three onshore blocks. DGH noted that the selection of the winners for these 45 blocks will ensure fairness between state-owned companies and private companies, as well as domestic and foreign companies.

BHP Billiton Limited (NYSE:BHP) (Melbourne, Australia) is the leading foreign company in submitting bids. Partnered with GVK Oil and Gas Limited, a subsidiary of GVK Power and Infrastructure Limited (BOM:532708) (Secundrabad, India), BHP placed bids on seven of the 12 deepwater blocks. DGH also revealed that BP (NYSE:BP) (London) entered into a partnership with Reliance Industries Limited (BOM:500325) (Mumbai) in bidding for one deepwater block.

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