British giant BP Plc has said that it did not bid for NELP-VIII purely on technical assessment of blocks on offer, an apparent rejection of theories that top energy firms did not bid for India’s largest licensing round because of oil ministry policies.
Mr Robert Dudley MD of BP Plc wrote to Mr Murli Deora Petroleum Minister said that “This decision not to bid in 8th round of New Exploration Licensing Policy was taken purely on the basis of the technical assessment of the blocks.”
About 40% of the 70 oil and gas exploration areas on offer were either old blocks that had not attracted bids in previous rounds, or did not have adequate data thereby dampening the response for them.
Some had attributed the lukewarm response to NELP-VIII, where only 36 blocks received bids, to government's interference in the marketing freedom given to companies discovering gas from areas won under NELP.
Mr Dudley, based out of London wrote to Mr Deora on October 20 that “We continue to maintain our close interest in investing in India’s energy sector at scale.”
Several energy giants like ExxonMobil, Chevron and Hess Corp were initially interested in NELP-V III and participated in promotional roadshows but did not ultimately bid.
(Sourced from http://www.steelguru.com/news/index/2009/10/26/MTE3NjQz/Non_bidding_for_NELP_VIII_based_on_technical_assessment_-_BP_Plc.html)
Monday, October 26, 2009
Non bidding for NELP VIII based on technical assessment - BP Plc
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