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The Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Panchayati Raj Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar, informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that a total investment of about US$ 0.94 Billion has been made till 31-12-2004 in the 90 exploration blocks contracted by various companies in the first four rounds of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP). Apart from this, he said investments of about US$ 1.02 Billion and US$ 1.59 Billion have been made under Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) in pre-NELP exploration blocks and in discovered fields respectively. At present India’s import dependence on crude oil is about 70% and as per current demand projections, on projected levels of domestic productions, import dependence is expected to be about 85% by 2025.
Shri Aiyar further stated that Government, in consultation with various stake holders, undertake an exercise after the conclusion of every NELP bidding round to improve and bring greater clarity to bid documents and the bidding process. The main improvements in the NELP-V round are as under :
i) Bid Evaluation Criteria (BEC) with all weightages for sub-parameters have been made public in the bid document.
ii) Work programme of signed PSCs can be seen in data rooms.
iii) Companies having net worth of US$ 500 Million or more in respect of onland and shallow water blocks are not required to submit bank guarantees as against the earlier net worth limit of US$ 1 Billion or more.
iv) Regional data of adjacent blocks/region can now be purchased by interested companies.
v) Government will now exercise its option to take gas in cash or in kind every five years instead of the earlier provision of such an option being exercisable every year.
RCJ/kc / PQ (15.3.05)
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