Hire an ONGC/Oil India face to get the best
As expected the small fields launch was filled to the brim with retired ONGC and Oil India officers offering their wisdom as consultants.
Ex-Oil India chairman MR Pasrija was overheard telling one operator he could get, "the best fields" while others proclaimed no one knows the acreage better then them. Undoubtedly true: ONGC and Oil India are after all the original licensees of the 26 onland, 18 shallow and two deepwater fields on offer.
No one yet knows if they have handed over field data to the DGH or whether that data can be trusted? All will become clear on June 6 when the DGH opens a dataroom at its Noida headquarters and simultaneosuly kicks off the small fields round with a roadshow in Mumbai where dates for similar shows in London, Houston and Calgary will be announced. No one can deny the financial terms are better than before.
At the Ashok Hotel launch DGH boss Atanu Chakraborty stressed a "paradigm shift" in the government's bid evaluation methodology signalling an end to the despised and dispute-prone NELP regime with a more friendly and aptly named HELP contract. "80% weightage will be given to revenue share with the government," stressed Chakraborty, "and 20% to the work programme." Listening in the audience were his venerable predecessors Avinash Chandra, VK Sibal, SK Srivastava, BN Talukdar and even serving bureaucrat RN Choubey.