Govt to offer 57 oil, gas blocks in NELP VII

The government will offer 57 oil and gas blocks for bidding in the seventh round of auctions under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) on December 13, that may see steel baron Lakshmi N Mittal bid for the first time, petroleum minister Murli Deora said today.

"We will announce NELP-VII on December 13," he said in New Delhi today.

Of the 57 blocks to be offered, nine are in shallow water, 19 in deep sea and 29 in onland. Most of the deepwater blocks would be in the western offshore.

Bids are due on April 11, 2008 and the awards would be decided by June.

"Mittal had a meeting with me on Saturday and he has expressed interest in NELP. I think he will bid, mostly likely to tie-up with some companies," Deora said.

Mittal is keen on expanding rapidly in oil and gas space. He has a joint venture with Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) for acquiring oil properties abroad and is partnering Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) in its $5-billion Bhatinda refinery in Punjab and a proposed refinery-cum-petrochemical complex at Vizag in Andhra Pradesh.

Deora said the first roadshow for NELP-VII would be held in Mumbai on January 8 and the overseas promotional campaign would be kicked-off towards the end of January. Roadshows are planned at a number of places including Houston, Calgary, London and Perth.

NELP-VII had been postponed several times. It was originally due in March/April 2007, but the controversy over pricing of gas from blocks won under earlier NELP rounds and shortage of drilling rigs forced the government to defer it several times. After the government settled the gas pricing issue, it decided to launch NELP-VII on November 5 but was deferred due to the Parliament session.