norwest unlikely to succeed in india bidding :( Found this on a...

norwest unlikely to succeed in india bidding :( Found this on a blog . .

. . .Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) are all set to corner most of the oil and gas exploration blocks, offered by the government under the fifth round of the New Exploration and Licensing Policy (Nelp-V).

While the final award of blocks will be completed by July 31, sources in the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) told FE that the domestic oil and gas companies had stolen the show by outbidding most of the foreign firms.

“Both ONGC and RIL have bid very aggressively. From the 20 blocks on offer, ONGC is likely to win 10 while four will go to RIL. One block each is expected to go to NTPC-Geopetrol-Canoro Resources consortium, Phoneix-Birbeck combine, IOC-EEPI consortium, Niko, GeoGlobal and JubliantEnergy-GSPC-GAIL consortia,” a senior DGH official said.

The most sought after block in the Krishna-Godavari basin, KG-DWN-2003/1, which received the maximum number of bids (nine), is also likely to go to ONGC. “On its own, ONGC is likely to get four and another four will come to the ONGC-Cairn consortium. One block each is expected to go to the consortium of ONGC-ENI-GAIL and ONGC-ENI-Cairn. In all, ONGC will get 10 blocks,” the official added.

Reliance, either on its own or in consortium, had bid for 10 blocks. “Two blocks in the Kerala-Konkan region and one in the Ganga valley are expected to go to RIL, where it had bid on its own. Another block in the Mahanadi basin is likely to be won by the RIL-Niko consortium,” the official said.

Leading foreign firms, including British Petroleum, British Gas, Petronas, Petrobras, Hunt Oil, Bech Petro, Kuwait Petroleum, Norwest Energy, Sungroup-Itara, Zakros Holding, Forsight Petro UK, Providence Resources, Dirkdeck, Istech are unlikely to get a block, sources said. In all 26 foreign companies, 17 of them for the first time, had participated in the auction process.