FIRST NELP-IV ROAD-SHOW HELD IN DELHI
Shri Ram Naik, Minister of
Petroleum and Natural Gas invited exploration and production companies
and investors to avail of the highly attractive investment opportunities
being offered under the Fourth offer of the New Exploration Licensing
Policy (NELP-IV). Shri Naik was speaking at the First NELP-IV
Road-Show held here today to promote the highly prospective 24
exploration blocks offered for global competitive bidding. Shri
Naik said that NELP-IV is being offered in the backdrop of some
of the largest gas discoveries made in the last one year in the
Krishna-Godavari Deepwater Offshore by Reliance and NIKO, as well
as ONGC’s significant finds in Vasai (Western Offshore). In addition,
7 discoveries have been made in the pre-NELP blocks covering Cambay
and Rajasthan. He said that the perception of investors about
India’s hydrocarbon prospectivity is expected to change for the
better with these discoveries.
Shri J.M. Mauskar, Joint Secretary,
Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas made a presentation on the
highly attractive fiscal and contractual terms offered by the
Govt. of India under NELP-IV. Dr. Avinash Chandra, Director General
(Hydrocarbons) made a presentation on the geology and hydrocarbon
prospectivity of the 24 blocks on offer.
Some of the important E&P
companies operating in India namely ONGC, RIL and Cairn Energy
made a presentation to demonstrate their success stories in India’s
E&P Sector. They also brought out the geological highlights
and hydrocarbon prospectivity. Ernst and Young, a reputed international
financial consultancy firm also made a presentation to highlight
the investment climate and their perception about investment opportunities
available in India.
Shri Naik mentioned that a
total of 67 E & P Companies, oil & gas field service providers,
Financial Institutions and other organisations participated in
the Delhi Road Show. Some of the main E & P Companies, which
participated in the Road Shows were BG, UK, Cairn Energy, UK,
Premier Oil, UK, Hardy, U.K., Niko, Canada, Marubeni, Japan, Reliance
Industries Limited, HOEC, Essar Oil Limited and National Oil Companies
ONGC, OIL, GAIL, IOC, HPCL, among others.
Shri Naik informed that to
leverage the recent huge discoveries, which have significantly
changed perceptions about the geological prospectivity of India’s
sedimentary basins, Government of India would undertake an effective
promotional programme to highlight the attractive investment opportunities
available under NELP-IV to prospective investors. To advise the
Government to promote NELP-IV effectively, the consortium of IndigoPool
(a subsidiary of Schlumberger) - CWC Associates, U.K. has been
retained as the Marketing Consultant for NELP-IV. Promotional
road-shows have been planned at London ( 5-6 June), Calgary( 9-10
June), Houston (11-12 June) and Perth ( 26-27 June) to bring home
to global investors the advantages that India offers under NELP
as well as information on the exciting new finds in recent times.
Shri Naik will address all the road-shows.
In order to provide access
to information such as salient technical data on the blocks on
offer, the bid documents and highlights of NELP-IV, a special
web site has been created at www.IndigoPool.com.
This website can also be accessed from the Ministry’s official
website www.petroleum.nic.in
as well as www.dghindia.org.
To facilitate data viewing
by Exploration and Production companies, the Government of India
would also be opening data centres at Delhi, Houston and London.
The data for NELP-IV can be viewed by companies at any of these
three centres and thereafter interested companies may purchase
data from DGH office at New Delhi.
The bid closing date for NELP-IV
is 30th September, 2003.
Shri Naik expressed the hope
that NELP-IV would attract a very good response from E&P companies
and investors and they would avail of the attractive investment
opportunities being offered through NELP-IV.
