Essar firm bags oil block in Vietnam, to invest $60mn

* Essar Exploration & Production Limited (EEPL), Mauritius, has been awarded an offshore block in Vietnam's prolific Song Hong basin.

Admeasuring approximately 5925 sq km, the block was awarded under a recent licensing round where 7 offshore blocks were on offer. It is a shallow water block with average water depth of 60 to 70 metres.

The minimum work programme for the block envisages detailed geological and geophysical studies, reprocessing of selected existing 2D seismic data, acquisition, processing and interpretation of fresh 3D seismic of 1000 sq km, and drilling of two exploratory wells with 3500 m target depth. The exploration phase is estimated to last five years and the investment for this programme will be approximately US$ 60 million.

Essar Oil is in the process of consolidating its upstream Exploration & Production activities under its proposed subsidiary, EEPL. This will help build a strong, fully integrated oil company with upstream, refining and downstream marketing activities. Once this exercise is completed, Essar Oil will have eight Oil & Gas blocks and one Coal Bed Methane block. This includes onshore blocks in Madagascar; an offshore block in Nigeria; on shore block in Mehsana, Gujarat; a Coal Bed Methane block in Raniganj, West Bengal; the offshore field Ratna & R Series and two onshore blocks in Assam.

About Essar Oil

Essar Oil Limited is a fully integrated oil company of international size and scale. Its assets include a 10.5 MTPA (210,000 bbls per day) refinery which is being scaled up to 34 MTPA, developmental rights in proven exploration blocks in India and abroad and a downstream retail network of over 1,500 fuel stations across India with the supporting infrastructure.

About Essar Group

The Essar Group is a diversified business corporation straddling the manufacturing and services sectors of Steel, Energy, Power, Communications, Shipping & Logistics, and Projects. EGL, through its six sectoral holding companies, has an enterprise value of approximately USD 50 billion (INR 200,000 crore) and employs 30,000 people worldwide. The Company has operations and investments in India, Canada, USA, Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean and South East Asia.