AP talks to HPCL, ONGC for alliance

The Andhra Pradesh government is in talks with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd and ONGC for a strategic partnership to bid for oil and gas fields under NELP VIII.
The state government wants to rope in a public sector player to leverage the infrastructure and expertise that they already have in the business.

A team from ONGC is expected to come to Hyderabad shortly to assess the compatibility.

The state government, last week, formed the AP Gas Infrastructure Corp Ltd to participate in oil and gas exploration activity.

“We are in talks with ONGC, and a couple of other public sector companies, to partner with to grab the opportunities in oil and gas exploration segment. A high level delegation of ONGC is expected to visit Hyderabad in the first week of September,” B Sam Bob, principal secretary, state industries department, told NW18. Bob, along with other senior officials, was part of the delegation that participated in the NELP-VIII road show in Houston US, recently.

This was the second road show by the ministry of petroleum, which is offering 70 blocks under NELP-VIII, aimed at attracting investment of around Rs 15,000 crore.
Some of the blocks under NELP-VIII are in the KG Basin, the coastal area of Andhra Pradesh.

Bids for NELP-VIII blocks will be accepted until October 12, and the Andhra government wants to finalise a partner before this deadline.

“We have met several domestic and international players recently in Houston, to identify the right partner. Prominent among them are ONGC, HPCL, GAIL from India,” he said.

State government officials also met global companies like Exxon, British Petroleum, Total, Devon, Apache Corp, among others, in the oil and gas exploration segment at the road show.

Bob said the state government also plans to invest in companies or consortia that already have interests in the KG Basin.

“The state government is interested to play a facilitator role rather than actively involve in the exploration activity. Apart from bidding for new blocks, we are looking for companies who already have blocks on their hand,” Bob said.

The state government is keen on buying up to 11% stake in consortia that are likely to win, or already have blocks in hand, he said.

“We will invest up to 11% via AP Gas Infrastructure Corp in any join venture or consortia. This may be in the form of land, infrastructure and some other ways,” he said.
“Andhra is first landing point for KG Basin. Any company that wins blocks or already has blocks needs lot of land and other infrastructure support. Here our partnership works,” he said.

—With Narayana Krishna of NW18