Held participatory interest in 27 NELP blocks: Oil India Ltd

Oil India Ltd (OIL) has held the participatory interest (PI) in 27 NELP blocks at the end of the NELP IX bidding round. In addition, it is holding 40 per cent PI in one CBM block in Assam, OIL CMD U P Singh told shareholders at its 56th AGM here on Saturday. Exploratory drilling is undergoing in both KG Basin and Mizoram blocks where OIL is the operator. Of the 27 blocks, it has the right of operatorship/ joint operatorship in 12 blocks and as non-operator in 15 blocks at the close of the bidding round which ended on March 31, 2015.

Singh said that during the year, OIL made 12 hydrocarbon discoveries, of which 11 were in the upper Assam basin and the last is a gas discovery in NELP VI BLOCK KG-ONN-2004/1 falling in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. Hydrocarbon reserve accretion during the year was 8.01 <g data-gr-id="17">mmt</g> (oil+oil equivalent gas) of oil and gas as against 7.98 <g data-gr-id="18">mmt</g> (O+OEG) of oil and gas in 2013-14. On OIL’s natural gas production, Singh said that the company achieved production of 2,722 <g data-gr-id="19">mmscm</g> from Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Rajasthan fields during the year. The present gas production potential is about 7.50 mmscmd from Assam and Arunachal Pradesh fields and about 0.70 mmscmd from the Rajasthan fields.

Efforts are on to increase gas production potential to a level of 10 <g data-gr-id="15">mmscmd</g> in the North-East for uninterrupted supply of gas to all customers, he added.  Singh said that OIL’s sound financial performance enabled the company to obtain international credit ratings — Moody’s “BAA2” (higher than sovereign rating) and Fitch Rating “BBB(-)” (Stable) (equivalent to sovereign rating) for the second consecutive year, besides the domestic credit rating of ‘AAA’, the highest by ICRA.