ONGC in talks with ExxonMobil for joint bids in next OALP round

Oil and Natural Gas Corp is aiming to collaborate with ExxonMobil to jointly bid for India’s hydrocarbon blocks in the tenth bidding round under the for Open Acreage Licensing Policy

• ONGC may jointly bid with ExxonMobil for hydrocarbon blocks in OALP round 10
• ONGC and Reliance ink resource-sharing deal for east coast deepwater projects.
• ONGC seeks global bids for technical experts in western offshore.

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State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp is aiming to collaborate with global petroleum major ExxonMobil to jointly bid for India’s hydrocarbon blocks in the tenth bidding round under the for Open Acreage Licensing Policy, the company’s Director (Exploration) O P Sinha said.

“We are in talks with ExxonMobil also. We are looking at possibilities of joint bidding in upcoming OALP rounds,” Sinha told reporters on the sidelines of the India Energy Week.

Back in 2022, the two companies had signed a Heads of Agreement with ExxonMobil for deepwater exploration in east and west coasts of India.

ONGC had earlier too partnered with Reliance Industries and global energy major bp to jointly bid for oilfields. A consortium of ONGC, Reliance Industries and bp won for the first time an offshore oil block in Gujarat in the ninth round of bidding under the OALP.

Going ahead, the upstream major will focus on exploration activities in the east coast including the Mahanadi basin, KG basin, Cauvery, and the Andaman.

“India's east coast will mostly be the focus area for exploration going ahead. We have Mahanadi basin, KG Basin, Andaman also we have taken up for drilling more extensively,” Sinha said. “In Cauvery also we have made discoveries. So the entire east coast is a prospective area from deep-water.  We are going to the deep-water areas in the west coast also,” the director added.

The company signed an agreement with Reliance Industries on Wednesday to enable resource sharing for deep-water offshore E&P operations on India’s east coast, particularly across the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin and Andaman offshore, in an attempt towards cost optimization, faster execution, and improved asset utilization in complex deep-water projects.

As per the agreement, ONGC and Reliance will pursue sharing of key resources required for offshore operations, which may include onshore and offshore processing facilities, drilling rigs, marine vessels (MSV, Tugs, PSV), Power, Pipelines, logging and well services, etc.

The agreement is expected to deliver cost optimization through shared use of high-value rigs, vessels, logistics and specialized subsea equipment. The company also said that it will enable faster mobilization and execution by improving access to the limited deep-water services available.

The company is also looking to hire technical experts for its oilfields in the western offshore and has floated a tender during the first week of January for the same. ONGC has reached out to as many as ten global players including Shell, ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, and Chevron seeking bids from them, the company’s director (production) Pankaj Kumar had said.

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