Several firms show interest in joint bidding for NELP VI

Reliance Energy and Essar Oil were interested in holding discussions with Origin Energy CGS Ltd while Tata Petrodyne wanted to discuss partnerships in the latest exploration offering with BG Exploration and BP India Services.

The company was slated to hold a one to one meeting with Global CBM, indicating that the Anil Ambani group company Reliance Energy was also interested in coal-bed methane exploration.

"More and more companies are willing to come to India to join the largely unexplored sector of drilling for gas and oil after clear policies had been formulated, as was evident from NELP V," Sunjoy Joshi, joint secretary, Ministry of Petroleum said.

VK Sibal, director general, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons said the government was taking a number of steps to encourage participants from all over the world to come to India to explore oil and gas in the country.

He invited investors to come to India, saying there were tremendous opportunities in this field, which had been largely unexplored so far and pointed out that the existing players who took their chance four years ago had made huge profits.

He said that there was minimum interference from the government in the bidding process and all the deals, terms and conditions and regulations were transparent and available on the internet so that no one felt discriminated against.

"We have laid down clear-cut guidelines and firm policies, creating a friendly and open atmosphere to fulfill the expectations of the investors and there is no delay in clearance of files. In the case of states, we even talk to the officials where needed. This is a remarkable achievement for a business that was started only four years ago," he said.

He said the government was thinking of setting up special economics zones for manufacturing oil rigs and other drilling equipment, which are in short supply in the country.