India has discovered 67 oil and gas fields, and wants to find out if anyone is interested in developing them. Dharmendra Pradhan, India's Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas will be in Houston and Washington this week to promote bidding on the fields, and shopping for interested buyers.
Pradhan will be in Houston and Washington until the 18th of this month. In Houston, he will launch the international roadshow for the fields. Pradhan will hold also hold a series of meetings with "think tanks" in both cities, and will take time visit other entities in the oil and gas sector. Also on Pradhan's itinerary are visits to oil and gas tech centers. On Thursday and Friday a delegation from India, which is also made up of government officials, and executives from oil and gas companies in that country will meet with the CEO's of oil and gas companies in the United States, along with investors, representatives from the U.S. India Business Council, and Indian hydrocarbon researchers. Pradhan is expected to visit with U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on Monday to discuss bilateral hydrocarbon cooperation.
The fields that are being offered for bidding contain 625 million barrels in oil and gas. Out of the 46 smaller fields, 18 are shallow water reserves, two are deep water, and the remaining 26 are on land. Successful bidders for the fields will have a single exploration license for "conventional and non-conventional hydrocarbons." They will also be able to sell the product at "arms-length" market prices.
In June, oil companies in Houston began to prepare for work India, after the government there announced pricing freedom for gas from deep-sea fields that start production in 2016. With the cost of services and rigs significantly down, India's Natural Gas Corporation began a deployment campaign. Investments in energy production have been up since the country's prime minister decided to cut import dependence by ten percent over the next six years, while consumption continues to grow.
Lincoln Brown for Oilprice.com
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