IndianOil hires Bharti to assess three fields
IndianOil is evaluating three promising contract areas under the Discovered Small Fields bidding round and has hired Vadodara-based consultant Bharti Exploration to evaluate available data before submitting bids.
Bharti is likely to submit a report by November on the Dipling Cluster, D18 and B9 Cluster areas under the Rs43 lakh ($64,000) contract awarded by IOC on September 10 (last month). "Bharti is presently evaluating the data and this will take around two months," confirms an IOC source.
"Based on the results we'll decide our investment strategy at the chosen fields." Also in the race for the IOC consultancy contract were Ahmedabad-based Josler Hydrocarbons and GSPC-affiliated Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute (GERMI). Technical bids were opened on August 20 at which point IOC rejected GERMI.
Josler's bid was also rejected after price bids were opened on September 6, leaving Bharti the winner. Luckily Bharti has enough time to do a thorough job following a DGH decision to extend the last date to view data to October 31 and the bid submission deadline, while yet to be confirmed, is likely to be pushed to end-November.
Only one roadshow has yet to be held in Bengaluru on October 14. IOC wants to expand its exploration portfolio of eight domestic and seven overseas blocks in line with a September 14 announcement that it will invest $27bn over six years to expand several business areas, including exploration.