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Oil blocks in J&K to be offered

MUMBAI: The Central Government will start the seventh round of auctions of oil and gas blocks under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) from November, Director-General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) V. K. Sibal said here on Saturday.

“In all, 80-85 blocks will be auctioned under the NELP-VII,” Mr. Sibal told reporters on the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) seminar.

The Director General of Hydrocarbons, a nodal body to ensure proper utilisation of the country’s oil and gas reserves, would offer for auction blocks located in Jammu and Kashmir for the first time.

The seventh round of auctions of oil and gas blocks was earlier slated to be held in April, which was subsequently deferred to August due to shortage of rigs world over. It was further deferred to November.

Mr. Sibal said the NELP-VII would cover a total area of 400,000 sq. km. and the main focus would be the west coast.

“The off-shore and on-shore ratio would be almost 50-50,” he said.

Mr. Sibal said global majors such as Chevron, Exon Mobile and Conco Phillips were likely to participate in the latest round of auction.

These companies did not participate in the sixth round of auctions in March, when the government allotted 55 blocks.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) plans to embark on a massive $12-14 billion investment programme in the next two to three years to carry out various exploration and production projects, apart from laying of 1,400-km East-West pipeline, the company President (Development and Production), Subhash C. Varma, said here on Saturday.

Mr. Varma said that laying of the 1,400 km East-West pipeline would cost around $3 billion. “We plan to create a national gas grid,” he said.

RIL would participate in the seventh round of auctions of oil and gas blocks under the NELP-VII, Mr. Verma said. — PTI

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