55 COMPANIES/ORGANIZATIONS PARTICIPATE TO MARK SUCCESSFUL CONVENING OF ROAD SHOW

The Government of India carried out an effective promotional campaign in London today showcasing 70 exploration blocks on offer under the eighth bid round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-VIII) and fourth bid round of Coal Bed Methane Policy(CBM-IV). The blocks include 28 in deepwater, 24 in shallow water and 18 in onland, out of which 10 are Type-S blocks( area of 200 sq km. or less).

After the Road Shows held at Mumbai on 8th August, 2009, Houston(20th August, 2009) and Calgary(24th August, 2009), the London road-show is the fourth one to be held for NELP-VIII & CBM-IV.

A high level delegation led by Mr. Murli Deora, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, comprising of Mr. S.Sundareshan, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Mr. D.N.Narasimha Raju, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Mr, V.K. Sibal, Director General, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, is currently in London to promote NELP-VIII & CBM-IV to prospective E&P companies and investors.

The Petroleum Minister assured that the process of awarding exploration blocks in 8th round under NELP-VIII and CBM-IV will be completed within four months from the receipt of bids. The bids are expected to be finalized for award by mid December and the Production Sharing Contract will be signed in another two months.

Delivering a key note address, he highlighted that the year 2009 has been remarkable in many ways for the Hydrocarbon sector in India as this year marks two historic milestones for the country.

The first has been the coming on stream of the big KG D 6 gas discovery made by RIL in the deep waters off the coast of Andhra Pradesh in April. With a peak production of 80 MMSCMD and doubling India’s gas production in the current year, KG D 6 is all set to change the perspective of the geological prospectivity of the Country.

The second has been the remarkable effort of Cairn India Limited in bringing the Barmer Discovery to production which was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India on 29th August, 2009. This find with a plateau production of 175,000 bopd, at one stroke adds 20% to the country’s oil production.

He expressed confidence that NELP with almost 200 blocks already under operation was set to change the oil and gas landscape of India. More remarkably, both these events represent the coming of age of the non-Government companies in India’s E & P sector and are testimony to the grit and confidence of India’s growing private sector.

Mr. Deora remarked that with India’s high import dependence of nearly 75% for oil requirements, the exploration for oil and gas through improved terms under NELP as well as CBM is a national priority.

The past ten years of this policy have delivered results that have made countries round the world sit up and take notice of the significance of India as an emerging oil and gas destination. With a large underexplored area, the country offers an excellent investment opportunity at attractive terms which are comparable with the best in the world.

So far, 71 hydrocarbon discoveries have been made under NELP and over 4.5 billion barrels of in-place reserves have been established. However, large unexplored areas in a country with 3.14 million sq kms of sedimentary area offer great potential to investors.

He emphasized the highly attractive opportunities being offered under NELP-VIII &CBM-IV. He impressed upon companies to participate in the bidding process to enter into a long term beneficial relationship by becoming part of India’s growing and vibrant Petroleum Sector.

The Road Show was attended by a large number of companies and organizations including 25 E&P companies, 30 service providers. Some of the E&P companies, which attended the Road Show were BG Group, BP, ENI, Cairn Energy, Premier Oil, Shell Upstream International, Nexen Inc, Foresight Ltd. and Hardy Exploration.

Mr. S.Sundareshan, Additional Secretary in Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas stressed his firm belief that despite the global economic downturn, oil and gas will continue to remain as prime energy resources and thus, important for a majority of nations.

While it is true that some E & P companies are reorienting their priorities and strategies to cope up with the challenges of the downturn, they are conscious of the importance of investing in oil and gas which is a sound long-term strategy. I

t is for this reason, and also for the reason that substantial oil and gas is yet to be discovered in India that he was optimistic of the possibility of this round of NELP and CBM attracting many prospective bidders. He highlighted that the Government of India has provided a level playing field to all the companies to compete on equal terms for award of exploration acreage. The attractive terms and conditions of the production sharing contracts are an added incentive for bidding companies.

Mr. Dominic Jermey, MD(Sector Group),Trade & Investment Department, Government of U.K. also spoke at the Road Show. He drew attention to initiatives taken by UK Trade & Investment Department to promote trade ties with India. He encouraged U.K. based E&P companies and investors to consider the investment opportunity offered by Government of India under NELP-VIII and CBM-IV.

Some of the major stakeholders in India’s upstream petroleum sector namely BG Group, BP, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Limited, Cairn Energy and Reliance Industries Limited made presentations during the London Road Show about their experiences in India and also about their plans & vision regarding India’s petroleum sector, especially the upstream sector.

They emphasized the strong fundamentals as well as the attractiveness of the E&P sector in India and concluded that the investment climate in India was indeed positive with very attractive fiscal terms under NELP & CBM. Ernst & Young also made a presentation to highlight the investment climate and their perception about oil and gas taxation regime in India.

Shri V.K.Sibal, DG, DGH made a presentation on Geological prospectivity of NELP-VIII and CBM-IV blocks. Shri D.N.Narasimha Raju, Joint Secretary(Exploration) in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas made a presentation on Bid Evaluation Criteria, Fiscal and Contractual terms for NELP-VIII and CBM-IV round.

While giving the reasons for investment in India due to growing domestic demand for oil & gas, a ready market and a possible supply contraction in the medium term, Shri Raju stressed that the time to invest in India is now. Shri V.K.Dewangan, Director in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas made the concluding remarks and extended vote of thanks.

In order to provide access to information such as salient technical data on the blocks on offer, the bid documents and highlights of NELP-VIII & CBM, a special web site has been created at www.indianelpviii.com. This website can also be accessed from the Ministry’s official website www.petroleum.nic.in as well as www.dghindia.org.

To facilitate data viewing by Exploration and Production companies, the Government of India has opened a data centre at Noida. At other centres viz., Houston, London, Calgary and Perth, the data centres will be available for access on request.

The data for NELP-VIII &CBM-IV can be viewed by companies at any of these centres as well as online through website and thereafter interested companies may purchase data. Further, Road Shows have been planned at Perth (22nd September, 2009) and Brisbane (24-25 September, 2009).

The bid closing date for NELP-VIII & CBM-IV is 12th October, 2009. . It is expected that NELP-VIII and CBM-IV bid rounds would result in a very good response from E&P companies and prospective investors as they are likely to avail of the excellent investment opportunities being offered through NELP-VIII and CBM-IV.

Government is committed to complete evaluation, award and signing of production Sharing Contracts in a reasonable time frame and the whole process would be completed in a transparent manner as demonstrated in past rounds of NELP &CBM.(EOM)