November 22, 2008

GVK BHP consortium won bids for 7 exploration blocks

Projects today reported that GVK BHP Billiton consortium has emerged as the winners of 7 deepwater exploration blocks off the west coast of India. GVK Oil & Gas, a subsidiary of GVK Power & Infrastructure Limited is the lead partner in the consortium.

It may be noted that India government had put on offer 57 oil and gas blocks of which 19 were deepwater blocks, 9 shallow water blocks and 29 on land blocks. It had received 181 bids for 45 blocks, with 7 deepwater blocks, 2 shallow water blocks and 3 on land blocks not receiving any bids. Around 96 companies have bid in the seventh round. While 19 blocks received single bid, 26 attracted multiple bids.

Evaluation of the bids will be undertaken by centre and the blocks are expected to be awarded within 2 months. The entire process would take about 2 months from bid receipt to the award of contracts and the contracts are expected to be signed by September 30th 2008.