GUWAHATI: Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) would soon venture into the upstream business of exploration and production, following the nod from Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to acquire participatory interest in two blocks in Assam.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Gas has formally approved that NRL could acquire participatory interest in the two exploration blocks of Namrup in Dibrugarh district and West Mechaki block in Tinsukia district, an official release said on Thursday.
The exploration blocks were earlier awarded to Oil India Limited (OIL) on October 1, 2018 after nationwide bidding under open acreage licensing policy (OALP) round-I. Namrup Block covers an area of 125 sq km and West Mechaki Block covers an area of 489 sq km.
OIL would be the operator in both the blocks as the farmout agreements for both the blocks were earlier signed with it. This would be NRL's first investment in exploration and production. With this development, NRL would have a holistic presence across all sectors of the oil industry--upstream, midstream and downstream, the release added.