Poor data quality might have misled DSF bidders
Yes, the Discovered Small Fields round received 134 bids but the companies who submitted them may have been misled by data provided by original owners ONGC and Oil India.
"Most of the data was unreliable," says an analyst. "Bidders may have been fooled." Take the South Patan cluster in Gujarat which received the maximum number of bids at 19.
Resource estimates from ONGC are likely to have been over optimistic considering that only two wells were drilled and tested at the field and the reservoir was never developed. "But maybe there's some oil trapped in the shale formation in South Patan," we hear.
Some also doubt data provided by Oil India for the Dipling cluster in Assam, the area second-most in demand with more than 20 companies buying the data package and 12 bids. "Mostly the resource figures for Dipling are provided on the basis of well Moran 98," we hear.
"But also data has been used from well Moran 17 which is actually 3.6-km away from the field." Yet another source says the CA cluster off Mumbai, which received no bids, was hyped inaccurately. "Well ED-4 was declared an oil discovery," he says.
"But it only produced 7.2 barrels when tested and that too through the 'reverse out' method used to extract hydrocarbons discovered at the bottom through tubing. No one produces from such wells."
