A senior Government of India delegation led by Hon’ble Minister Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, and other Government of India dignitaries organized an interactive meet for Discovered Small Field Bid Round 2016 in London on 12 September 2016.
A large audience consisting of Oil companies, financiers, service companies and media was informed that the Indian economy has been growing dramatically with a GDP of 7.6% FY 2015 – 16. Under the dynamic and visionary leadership of Honorable Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, various initiatives such as Make in India, Digital India, Skill India and Start Up India have been introduced. These initiatives have completely changed the face of the Indian economy with India being first among world’s most attractive investment destinations and features among the world’s best countries to invest in.
With the growing economy, the demand for energy in India has increased manifold and is predicted to increase even further in the coming years, thereby, placing an enormous demand on its energy resources.
In line with Indian Prime Minister’s vision of reducing import dependency on oil and gas by 10% by 2022, the Government of India is offering offering 46 Contract Areas consisting of 67 small fields across 9 sedimentary basins for exploration and production of oil and gas in India under a liberalised policy regime.
Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), the technical arm of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is inviting bids for these areas which hold 625 Million Barrels of Oil and Oil Equivalent Gas (O+OEG) in-place volumes, spread over 1500 sq. km. (in 26 Onland, 18 Shallow water and 2 Deep water areas).
Several key features of the bid round were discussed such as single license for extraction and production of all types of hydrocarbon resources based on the Revenue Sharing Contract Model freedom in pricing and marketing for oil and gas produced and various fiscal incentives such as no oil cess, exemption of custom duty and graded royalty rates.
Mr Amar Nath, Joint Secretary, MoPNG, extended a warm welcome to all of participants of interactive session of London and sets up the stage for the event. The Indian High Commissioner to United Kingdom, Mr. Navtej Sarna highlighted the UK-India Trade and Economic Relations. Mr. K.D Tripathi, Secretary, MoPNG urged the investors to invest in the available opportunity to accelerate India’s success and be associated with its 125 year old Hydrocarbon Industry.
As part of the interactive meet at London, there were multiple presentations with regards to Ease of Doing Business in India as well as on details of the new bid round. The first presentation was given by Mr. Anish De, Partner, KPMG India, who highlighted the key statistics and overall macroeconomic scenario of Indian economy with oil and gas focus and discussed about the E&P sector in India.
Mr Anil Agarwal, Chairman, Vedanta shared his experiences in Indian E&P Business. Mr. Vikram Singh Mehta, Executive Chairman, Brookings India spoke about the emerging economic dynamism in India. Mr. Sashi Mukundan, Reginal President, India Head, BP discussed the evolving business climate of India. Mr. Mike Watts, Co-Founder, Magna Energy highlighted the key oil and gas projects in India.
Ms. Rachel Calvert from IHS discussed India’s positive upstream investment environment and the attractiveness of the Indian economy.Mr. Nabin Ballodia, Partner, KPMG India, gave a detailed presentation on the Indian Taxation Regime for E&P sector.
Mr. Atanu Chakraborty, Director General, DGH gave a detailed presentation on evolution of oil and gas sector, attractive features of the bid round, bid qualifying criteria and parameters. Mr. T.K. Sengupta, Director (Offsore) from ONGC gave a presentation on the facilities and infrastructure available near the offered fields that may be utilized by prospective bidders.
It was informed that since the launch of the bid round on 25 May 2016 in New Delhi, several interactive meets have been held across India and various international locations – Houston, Calgary, Dubai and Singapore, marked great participation from Government Dignitaries, Ambassadors from the Oil and Gas Industry, Service Providers and Financial Institutions with extensive coverage by several international and national media houses.
The Hon’ble Minister inaugurated the physical data room at London through remote access to facilitate investors to access technical data for offered fields, which would be operational from 13 September 2016. Besides the provision of physical data room at Noida and Virtual Data Room details were also provided to the prospective bidders. The facility of a facilitation cell to answer the queries of prospective bidders was also discussed, having solved over 300 queries so far.
In the afternoon, a roundtable interaction with UK industry players will be conducted to discuss the the overall business environment in upstream oil & gas sector and the bid round along with a presentation on Indicative Viability Model. Later in the day, the Hon’ble Minister, MoPNG would hold one on one interaction with prominent industry leaders such as BP, Cairn, Hardy etc.
On 13 September 2016 a roundtable was planned with equity analysts and financial institutions to share insights on the emerging investment opportunities in India. In addition, on 14 September 2016, an Interactive meet was planned at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen to provide awareness of the bid round itself.
