India will open the seismic data viewing centres for NELP-VIII and CBM IV in six locations around the world on May 20, a top official said today.
"The (seismic) data is already avaialable on the website. Data rooms for NELP-VIII will be opened on May 20 in New Delhi, Houston, Calgary, Perth and London. For CBM-IV, we will open them in Houston and Brisbane on the same day," Deputy Director General, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, S K Srivastava told reporters on the sidelines of a conference here.
The Government has put up 70 oil and gas blocks for auction, the biggest ever, under the eighth round of New Exploration Licencing Policy expecting over $3 billion investment. Twenty four among are deep-sea blcoks, 28 shallow awter blocks and the remain are onland.
The 75 per cent import dependent nation is also offering 10 areas for extraction of gas from below coal fields, known as coal bed methane (CBM). Of the CBM blocks on offer, two each are in Orissa and Maharashtra. Jharkhand, Assam and Tamil Nadu have one block each and one is on the Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh border.
The date for final submission of bids for NELP-VIII and CBM-IV is August 20. The upstream regulator, however, said the Government may extend the date for submitting of bids for blocks if warranted.
"The policies of the Government of India are very investor-friendly. The dates (for submisssion of bids) may be extended if there is a demand from the investors," Srivastava said.
Srivastava said India, whcih deffered the roadshows for NELP-VIII and CBM-IV on account of ambiguity on tax levy on production of natural gas, is likely begin the roadshows in mid-June.
"The date for the roadshows will be fixed after the new Government comes in and the ministry is formed. I think in mid-June, we should start," he said.
After seven rounds, the area under exploration has increased more than four times to 48 per cent of Indian sedimentary basin area from 11 per cent before implementation of NELP.
At present, the Government has allowed a seven-year tax holiday only on the production of crude oil. Exploration and production players participating in the auction have raised the issue that natural gas, which flows along crude oil should be given a similar tax holiday.
"The tax issue is being taken up at the highest level in the finance ministry by the ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas," Srivastava said.
