KOCHI: The government will sign contracts for the 31 small discovered oil and gas fields on March 27. Touted as an auction round that would replicate the shale gas revolution of the US, half of the fields went to new and lesser known entrants like engineering company Megha Engineering and Infrastructure, KEI-RSOS Petroleum, Enquest Drilling and Nippon Power.
IOC, BPCL and HPCL had cornered a third of the fields. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved the award of 31 fields out of 34 that received bids in the auction that closed on November 21.
These fields have reserves of 62 million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas. These could produce a peak of around 15,000 barrels of oil per day and 2 million standard cubic metres per day of gas, the Directorate
General of Hydrocarbons said in a statement. The peak oil and gas output envisaged is about two per cent of India’s current oil and gas production.
The development of these fields is crucial in achieving Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s target of reducing oil imports by 10 per cent by 2022.
In all, 46 fields that were taken away from state-owned ONGC and Oil India were put on bidding. Thirty-four received bids. Bharat PetroResources, a unit of Bharat Petroleum Corp, won the most number of five fields. Indian Oil Corporation and PFH Oil and Gas have bagged three fields each.
“This is a major development in the energy sector in the country. But, the production should be in line with the estimates,” said energy expert M P Sukumaran Nair, director, Centre for Green Technology and Management.