India to boost offers for oil, gas exploration

Reuters ^ | Thu Jun 4, 2009 7:24 am EDT | Reuters

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India aims to auction its remaining 1 million square kilometers (387,000 sq miles) of potential exploration areas in the next two to three years, buoyed by recent oil and gas discoveries, the upstream regulator said on Thursday.

It recently launched its biggest-ever exploration round, offering 70 blocks as it expects companies to seize the opportunity to strike good bargains because of the economic slowdown.

The discoveries, and their development, will prove useful as India imports over 70 percent of the crude it consumes and demand is expected to rise further as the economy recovers.

The country has so far allotted 68 percent of its 3.14 million sq km of area for exploration to various companies.

Foreign oil firms including Anadarko Petroleum (APC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), South Korea's Samsung and Noble Energy (NBL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) had indicated interest in the latest round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), Director General (Hydrocarbons) V.K. Sibal told the Reuters Energy Summit in New Delhi.

"For big firms, the credit squeeze and downturn is not a problem, rather this is the best time to avail prospective acreage at cheaper rates," he said.

Out of the country's 26 sedimentary basins, exploration works have been initiated in just 15 basins.

"Our country holds about 205 billion barrels of hydrocarbon resources. Of this, 138 billion barrels are yet to be found, and the remaining has been established on the basis of drilling work done," Sibal said.

[myknowledge]

Oil is the lifeblood of India’s economy (glug glug glug glug).

I’d wish some things besides oil were the lifeblood of an industrialist or agriculturalist nation’s economy.