Union Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar on Thursday invited global firms to bid for oil and gas exploration blocks under the Fifth Round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-V).‘‘Earlier we waited for the customer to come to our doorstep. Now we will make available our salespersons at your doorsteps,’’ Aiyar told a packed house of oil firms and investment bankers in London. This band would revisit the interested bidders if required, he added.Kicking off the second roadshow for Nelp-V, Aiyer said he was willing to shift data-centre containing technical information on the 20 blocks on offer to any national capital, as desired by the interested exploration firm. He also promised that all clearances would be in place within a year, so successful bidders would be able to start work from January 2006.‘‘We will attach the highest priority, awards will be announced within 60 days of the submission of bids (on May 31). Sixty days after, we will be ready to sign the production sharing contracts,’’ Aiyar announced. Clearances from states for onland blocks would be ensured in 90 days. For all these, a single-window inter-ministerial committee has been set up to ensure speedy approvals. ‘‘It would be my personal responsibility to talk to the state chief ministers to take care of your problems,’’ he promised.Seeking a shift of focus to India’s upstream sector, Aiyar said the recent finds on the east and west coasts of the country had established very exciting potential for gas and oil. ‘‘Pull out of North Sea, look for newer opportunity: India is a potential,’’ he exhorted, adding that there were doubts over returns from investments in the once prolific North Sea whose reserves were declining fast. ‘‘Very exciting potential of gas has been established all along the east coast. The Bay of Bengal will prove to be the North Sea of South East Asia,’’ he told the gathering.Reliance Industries, Cairn Energy and the state-run ONGC have discovered gas along the coastal line which together could cross 20 trillion cubic feet of reserves. ‘‘The prospect rivals the west coast of Africa. The potential is there but we cannot exploit it on our own,’’ he said. Though India has increased the explored area, nearly 82 per cent of the sedimentary basins (which house these hydrocarbons) remain unexplored or poorly explored.He said India was willing to accept any form of involvement by foreign firms — alone, in consortium or as JV with private Indian firm or state-run enterprise.
