Indian and global oil majors vie for oil blocks under NELP-VII

New Delhi, June 30 (PTI) Government Monday received 181
bids from global and domestic oil majors, including ONGC,
Reliance Industries, Essar, BP Plc and BHP Billiton, for oil
and gas exploration blocks under the seventh round of NELP
auction.

However, there were no bids for 12 out of 57 blocks that
were on the offer under the New Exploration Licensing Policy.

The winners would be decided by August 31, 2008.

GVK was also among the Indian companies that put in a bid
for the largest ever auction of oil and gas blocks by the
government.

The 12 blocks that failed to receive any bids were the
recycled blocks, Director General of Hydrocarbons V. K. Sibal
told reporters here.

He said all blocks received multiple bids and two small
blocks received 17 bids.

The government had twice postponed the bid dates for the
seventh round of auction under the New Exploration Licensing
Policy, even as the Petroleum Ministry sought tax breaks from
the Finance Ministry for oil and gas production. PTI