Global oil majors woo GSPC

Exxon, Shell, BP, British Gas among 13 in fray for development of Krishna-Godavari basin field.

ExxonMobil, Shell, British Petroleum and British Gas have expressed interest in the KG basin gas field of Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC).

The state-owned exploration, production and distribution company GSPC had invited expression of interest from global majors for the development of Offshore Platform, pipelines (sub-sea & onshore) and Onshore Production Facility to facilitate the development of Deen Dayal Gas Discovery.

On the last day of submission of expression of interest on Wednesday, GSPC has received 13 preliminery proposals for the development of the field.

The long list of the oil and gas companies include Brazil's Petrobras, Malaysia's Petronas, Italy's ENI, Norway's Statoil, Spain's Repsol YPF, U.S-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Canada's Husky Energy Inc. and Sharjah-based Crescent Petroleum.

A senior official of GSPC confirmed that 13 companies including ExxonMobil, BG and Shell have submitted EOI.

Out of the 13 shortlisted oil majors, those selected will be offered share from 80 per cent equity stake GSPC holds in KG basin project.

The selected ones are expected to get around 20 per cent stake in the KG basin as the Gujarat government has also sought 20 per cent stake in the KG basin.

Among other partners in the block KG-OSN-2001/03 are Geoglobal Resources (India) (GGRI) and Jubilant Enpro with 10 per cent equity stake each in the project.

GSPC is the operator in this offshore shallow water block where the well No. 3 has been found with the potential reserves at the depth of 5,000 metre.

In addition to 20 tcf found last year, last month GSPC discovered more gas along with some oil from its the KG Din Dayal block well no 4.

The new find is at 3,500 metre depth and from a crater which is spread in 60 to 90 quare km area.