RIL taps three foreign cos to hunt for oil
Reliance Industries (RIL) is learnt to be talking to three mid-sized oil co= mpanies =97 Australia’s Santos, Devon Energy and AARCO of the US =97 to bid= for oil and gas blocks in the seventh round of the New Exploration Licenci= ng Policy (NELP). The government has offered 19 deepwater blocks in this ro= und.
RIL’s aim is to partner a foreign company with the required technologic= al expertise. Global oil giants like ExxonMobil, Chevron and Conoco Phillip= s are unlikely to bid in this round. Although the final word is not out yet= (bids are set to open only by June end), analysts say no oil major is inte= rested in investing in India’s oil and gas sector at this point, thanks to = the policy uncertainties over tax sops and marketing freedom.
All the three foreign oilcos have done considerable deepwater work, par= ticularly in the Gulf of Mexico. Devon Energy, a Fortune 500 company with a= market cap of $46 billion, has operations in the US and Canada.
The company is among North America’s largest producers of natural gas liqui= ds. It is engaged in E&P activities in the Gulf of Mexico, Canada’s Arc= tic region, China, Brazil and Azerbaijan.
In the Gulf of Mexico, De= von holds 2.2 million net acres in the deepwater. The deep Gulf, where dept= hs can be over 10,000 feet, is a promising frontier where Devon has made ex= citing oil discoveries
