The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has rejected the bids of Ishar Gasoil Pvt. Ltd for three oil and gas blocks under the ninth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP).

While two blocks have been now awarded to second qualifying bidders, GAIL (India) and its consortium and Deep Energy consortium respectively, one block has not been awarded as there was no second bidder.

Briefing newspersons, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, said that the bids of Ishar Gasoil for the blocks RJ-ONN-2010/1, GV-ONN-2012/1 and CB-ONN-2010/2 have been rejected due to the company’s negative net worth.

“Since there is no other bidder for the block GV-ONN-2012/1, this block will not be awarded at all,” the Minister said. The CCEA decision was after considering the submissions made by the company, the view of Directorate-General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) and recommendations of the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (ECS), the Minister added.

Now block RJ-ONN-2010/1 has been awarded to the consortium of GAIL (India), Bharat Petro Resources Ltd (BPRL), BF Infrastructure Ltd (BFIL) and Monnet Ispat & Energy Ltd (MIEL).

Block CB-ONN-2010/2 is awarded to Consortium of Deep Energy LLC (DEL), Deep Natural Resources Ltd (DNRL) and Safal WSB Energy Private Ltd (SWEPL).

NELP-IX was launched on October 15, 2010. 34 blocks were offered. The offered blocks included - eight deepwater blocks, seven shallow water blocks and 19 onland blocks. Bids were opened by DGH on March 28, 2011.

richa.mishra@thehindu.co.in

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