Tata arm on oil, gas hunt abroad

Australian, Asian oil blocks on the radar.

Tata Petrodyne (TPL), a fully-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, is drawing up plans to join the race for acquiring oil and gas blocks abroad.

The company, having marginal presence in domestic sector, is likely to announce its overseas ventures next month.

V K Sharma, executive director, TPL said the company would participate in NELP VI bid and the evaluation of assets were going on.

"We have marginal interest in coal bed methane (CBM) III bid. For oil and gas block acquisitions the company is planning big investments, " he said.

The company is in talks with global and domestic oil majors for a combined bid under new exploration and licensing policy (NELP) VI in India. It is the consortium partner of three blocks in the country.

Sources close to the development said TPL was eyeing the oil blocks in Australia and Asia. Industry sources said the company was interested in some of the blocks in Australia and West Asia. Sharma refused to divulge more details.

"TPL cannot bid in NELP VI as the operator because of the lack of experience in the sector. But the company will join the race with global and domestic majors having experience as operator," industry analysts said.

TPL has marginal presence in the sector when compared to the other major groups such as Reliance Industries, Essar and Videocon.

Since its inception in 1994, the company had participated in a few rounds of bidding in the country. But its interests in this sector is limited to three oil and gas blocks, where they are non-operators.

The operators for the three blocks are Hardy Exploration and Production, Cairn Energy and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

TPL was initially promoted by Tata Industries with the objective of spearheading the group's foray into the upstream sector.

Ownership of TPL later changed hands in line with the group's strategy to consolidate all its energy businesses into a single corporate entity, and it was acquired by Tata Power Company.

Looking at the very nature of the oil and gas business which requires focus and large investments, the parent company Tata Sons bought 100 per cent stake in TPL.