India's Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas, Jitin Prasada has inaugurated the third roadshow of the eighth bid round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-VIII) and fourth bid round of Coal Bed Methane (CBM-IV) at Calgary. This was the third roadshow, in the series of promotional road shows organised by Government of India at various places, first at Mumbai on August 8, 2009 and second at Houston on August 20, 2009.
Prasada invited exploration and production companies and prospective investors to avail of the highly attractive investment opportunities being offered under NELP-VIII and CBM-IV.
He stated that NELP-VIII is being offered in the backdrop of 71 oil and gas discoveries which have already been made in 21 exploration blocks by accretion of in place hydrocarbon reserves of more than 600 million metric tonne of oil equivalent (MMTOE). Under NELP regime, major natural gas production in KG basin commenced from April, 2009. With this, the gas production in India would be doubled as against production of 2008-09. Total committed investment in NELP rounds for exploration so far is around $10 billion and actual investment made is around $11.9 billion ($5.3 billion in exploration and $6.6 billion in development). Further, the commercial production of CBM commenced in Raniganj block with effect from July, 2007.
Prasada informed that the recent huge discoveries have significantly changed perceptions about the geological prospectivity of India’s Sedimentary basins. Government of India would utilise this in undertaking an effective promotional programme to highlight the attractive investment opportunities available under NELP-VIII and CBM-IV to prospective investors which would make global investors aware of the opportunities that exist under NELP and CBM as well as information on the exciting new development in E&P sector.
Prasada also informed that at present, area under exploration is about 50% of Indian Sedimentary Basins. During XI plan period, area under exploration has been targeted at 80% of total Indian Sedimentary basins.
Some of the main E&P companies which participated in the Roadshow were Canoro Resources Ltd., Alberta Oilsands Inc, Pengrowth Energy Trust, Husky Energy Inc., Oil India Limited, BG India, GAIL India Limited, Niko Resources Limited, TransGlobe Energy, Plan Energy Inc, Crew Energy Inc, etc.
To facilitate data viewing by E&P companies, the government of India has opened a data centre at Noida, India, and at other centres at Houston, London, Calgary and Perth, the data centres will be available for access on request. The data for NELP-VIII &CBM-IV can be viewed by companies at any of these centres as well as online through website and thereafter interested companies may purchase data.
Promotional Roadshows for NELP-VIII and CBM-IV have been planned also at London (September 8-9, 2009), Perth ( September 22, 2009) and Brisbane (September 24-25, 2009).
The bid closing date for NELP-VIII and CBM-IV is October 12, 2009. It is expected that NELP-VIII and CBM-IV bid rounds would result in a very good response from E&P companies and prospective investors as they are likely to avail of the excellent investment opportunities being offered through NELP-VIII and CBM-IV. Government is committed to complete evaluation, award and signing of production Sharing Contracts in a reasonable time frame and the whole process would be completed in a transparent manner as demonstrated in past rounds of NELP &CBM.