ONGC in talks with global players to bid for blocks

Mumbai: Public sector Oil and Natural Gas Corporation today said it is in talks with overseas players for an alliance to bid for blocks offered by the government in the latest round of auction.

ONGC would like to bid for about 40 out of the 57 blocks on offer in the seventh round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), said company chairman R S Sharma.

“We will go slow in some areas (blocks) and there will be alliances in others. We will take a block-by-block approach. For deep-water blocks, we may have an alliance with major players since we need the technology,” Sharma said.

An ONGC source, however, said that the state-run company is in talks with at least two Norwegian companies to jointly bid for the deep-water blocks.

Sharma said there is also a possibility of tying up with domestic players. “Name any domestic company, we seek partnership with it for an alliance,” he said.

The government has put 57 exploration blocks on offer for prospecting, out of which 19 are deepwater, nine in shallow water and 29 are onland.