Offshore staff
ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL) and the Indian Oil Corp.-Oil India Ltd. consortium will bid for four or five blocks in Nigeria's upcoming upstream round. OVL has identified offshore blocks to bid upon. The IOC-OIL is interested in both offshore and onshore blocks.
OVL is interested in the 12 deepwater blocks in the Nigerian sector of the Gulf of Guinea in 2,000-3,000 m water depths. OVL expects the minimum bids to be $50 million minimum for each deepwater block. OVL and IOC-OIL have bought data packages for the round.
The blocks are prospective based on a recent examination of the data. A final decision on how many blocks to bid onwill be made by early July.
Nigeria offers 60 onshore and offshore blocks in the latest licensing round including acreage in the Gulf of Guinea, the Niger Delta, and the inland basins of Chad, Anambra, and Benue. Companies can bid in July followed by production sharing contract signing on August 31.
India's overall crude oil production has stagnated at 33.3 million tons/year over the past three years. Gas output is 80 MMcm/d, which meets 70% of domestic demand.
India imports 70% of its crude requirements and consumes 112 million tons of petroleum products each year.
06/07/05
