Big Oil wants too much: Sibal

In the last two days, Director-General of Hydrocarbons VK Sibal has been asked several times the reason for the no-show of oil giants like Exxon Mobil in the sixth round of auction of oil prospecting licences.

He has finally decided to give some answers "" that their absence is an indication of the strength of the country, rather than a weakness.

"It is not that these companies did not want to come," he said. The issue is that they wanted a large share of the production from the blocks, and that is something the large Indian partners they were talking to were not willing to give.

"They are used to twisting arms all over the world, but Indian companies are mature," said Sibal.

Besides Exxon, there were no bids from other American companies like Chevron and Conoco Phillips, which were widely expected to bid.

"If they want to come, they have to come on our terms," he said, expressing satisfaction with the response from 35 foreign companies.

These include larger players like BP and BG from the UK, Total of France and ENI of Italy, and companies from Malaysia, Myanmar, Australia, Ukraine, and Cyprus.

"I do not care if some biggies are not coming. Those that are coming are adding value to the country's exploration," he said.

The latest auction of prospecting licences is expected to lead to investment of $8-10 billion, in a worst-case scenario. The actual investment could be much larger, though Sibal declined to commit himself to a number.

"It is, after all, a predictive science and as oilmen, we are trained to be conservative," he said.

Next auction

Work has begun on the next round of auction of oil blocks, which will be bigger in scale than this round.

"The target is to put up 60-70 blocks (against 55 in the current round)," said Sibal. The data acquisition process for the blocks is on and the marketing exercise is expected to be kicked off in December.