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OIL seeks link ups for Assam exploration

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Jyoti Mukul New Delhi
Last Updated : Feb 06 2013 | 8:20 AM IST
Oil India (OIL) plans to join hands with a foreign exploration company to explore for oil and gas in the thrust belt in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The company already holds the licence for parts of the Schuppen belt in Assam.
 
The tie-up could extend to bidding for one of the three blocks in Assam which are under offer in the fifth round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP).
 
The block falls in the Naga Schuppen belt while the other two blocks are in the shelf part of the Assam-Arakan basin. Senior company executives said they would be looking for a company with niche experience of exploration in the thrust belt.
 
The tie-up would be for domestic blocks. OIL had earlier this year signed a MoU with IOC for jointly undertaking upstream projects, but according to officials this tie-up was mainly for overseas projects.
 
The thrust belt falls in Assam and Andhra Pradesh up to the Nagaland border and is believed to have a high oil potential. OIL is targeting 1-1.5 million tonne oil production from the area in the three years.
 
Besides the thrust belt, the company plans to focus in the riverine areas of Arunachal Pradesh and the Brahmaputra river belt. This is part of its strategy to double its oil production to 7 million tonne in three years.
 
OIL is planning to carry out seismic survey in the Brahmaputra river bed with an estimated investment of around Rs 138 crore through seven international companies.
 
With most of the north-east has been explored, OIL is now turning to more difficult and geologically more complex frontier areas like the belt of Schuppen, exploration of stratigraphic traps and the river bed.
 
The joint integrated project evaluation by OIL and Australia's ISIS covering part of Upper Assam basin was also carried out leading to identification of possible reserves.

 
 

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