Oil India plans 3 new offshore seismic tenders

Oil India is poised to issue invitations to bid for seismic contracts across two offshore OALP blocks across the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and one in the Kerala Konkan basin on the west coast.

This report learns Oil India is currently reviewing tenders for OALP-2 blocks AN-OSHP-2018/1 and AN-OSHP-2018/2 and Kerala-Konkan block KK-OSHP-2018/1 following a week of meetings this month (November) in Delhi with retired ex-ONGC geophyicisit IB Rao, one of several 'empanelled' seismic experts periodically hired by Oil India's exploration directorate headed by director exploration P Chandrasekaran to help it draw up the technical parameters of seismic tenders. Among Rao's taks is to decide how much seismic will be shot.

"The tenders are under review and almost ready," we hear. "Only some commercial areas need to be finalised before they are issued."

End-December (2019) or at the latest end-January (2020) is when Oil India tentatively expects to invite bids. Still unclear is whether they will be for 2D or 3D across 3669.25-sq km AN-OSHP-2018/1, 5947.45-sq km AN-OSHP-2018/2 and 3519.69-sq km KK-OSHP-2018/1.

Our source adds all Oil India offshore tenders will be overseen from Delhi while onshore tenders will continue to be managed from the field HQ in Duliajan.