NELP IX

State-run companies came to the rescue of the government’s ninth round of acreage auction that was shunned by global majors of consequence, except UK’s BG (formerly British Gas) and Australian mining giant BHP-Billiton. In all, 74 bids —mostly from small companies—were received for 33 out of the 34 blocks that were on offer under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELPIX). This is lower than in the previous rounds. Oil minister S Jaipal Reddy rejected suggestions that the long time being taken by the government in deciding on Vedanta Resources’ $10.6 billion acquisition of Cairn India has dampened investor sentiment. Flagship explorer ONGC bagged 10 of the 33 exploration acreages that received bids at the close on Monday. ONGC bid with sister companies such as Oil India for 29 blocks and won 10. The company had won almost two-thirds of the blocks offered in the previous rounds. Reliance Industries bid for two deepsea blocks in the Andaman Basin and four onshore blocks in Rajasthan and Gujarat. It was declared provisional winner for the two deepsea concessions. The company had stayed away from the auction in 2009 and bid for just one area in the seventh round. BG teamed up with BHP Billiton to win a deepwater block in the Mumbai basin, off the West Coast. This was the only block for which the combine had put in its bid. Essar Oil bid for and won an onshore block in the Cambay basin, the most-contested acreage that received the highest number of six bids. Cairn India submitted offers for one onland and one offshore block, both of which it lost. Cairn did not bid for the blocks in Rajasthan where it discovered India’s biggest oil reserve. ONGC and its partners won five out of the eight deepwater blocks on offer. Reliance won two and BG-BHP one. Small companies jostled for the 19 onland blocks, with OIL managing to win just two. Essar was the only other notable winner, while the rest went to lesser-known companies. Other state-run firms in the fray included gas utility GAIL and the upstream arm of Bharat Petroleum, which bid for four blocks.