Auction NEWS

Brazilian oil major, Petrobras has put on sale its natural gas fields in Peroa and Cangoa shallow-water, apart from the Malombe deepwater exploration concession. The state-run firm informed in securities filing about initiating the teaser phase of the sale. The fields in Peroa and Cangoa yield about 900,000 cubic meters of gas per day, while the Malombe concession will most likely be declared commercially feasible in 2019.

The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) yesterday released the list of winners of Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) Round II and III. While state-owned Oil India Ltd (OIL) secured 12 exploration blocks, Vedanta Ltd won 10 and ONGC got eight blocks. RIL and BP Plc together won a gas block in KG basin. The government had put 32 oil and gas exploration & production blocks on auction under OALP.

If sources were to be believed, India’s E&P major, ONGC will soon auction off over 60 discovered small and marginal fields to private companies. ONGC will follow the production enhancement contracts (PEC) mechanism to auction the fields to global energy firms. People aware of the development said that leading services firm KPMG has been made aware of ONGC’s decision to carry out the PEC process.

India's ONGC has won back Chinnewala Tibba gas field in Rajasthan in the second round of DSF. The field was discovered by the company 15 years back. ONGC has won five out of the 23 discovered oil and gas fields the contracts for which have been signed on Thursday. According to the officials, the 72-square kilometer field has 1,900 million standard cubic metres of reserves.

The Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) bid round-II, launching on Monday, will see 14 blocks go on offer. The second round of auction has been delayed for months now. The Government of India launched OALP in 2017 in an attempt to increase domestic output and curb imports. The 14 blocks going for auction are expected to possess 12,609 million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas.

As previously announced, auction for the four blocks in Rio de Janeiro in the Santos in Campos basins will be held just a week before the presidential elections, on Friday. The companies registered for this are CNOOC, Chevron Corp, Equinor, BP and Total. These companies will have the last chance to try for one of the most wanted Brazil’s offshore oil. There is a fear regarding obstacles for foreign investment.

The South African Competition Tribunal has approved Glencore’s $973m bid for the acquisition of Chevron Corp’s subsidiary. Chinese state-owned Sinopec was acquiring 75% stake through the sale last year, before Glencore jumped in, backed by minority shareholders and exercised pre-emptive rights on the sale. The proposed merger is subject to the condition that jobs are preserved after the deal and the CSA retirees’ medical aid subsidy is continued among others.

The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) yesterday announced the results of the maiden open acreage auction, with Vedanta Group winning big. The auction received 110 bids for the 55 blocks on offer, and Vedanta received licenses for 41 of them. Vedanta played aggressive in the auction, placing bids on the entire blocks on auction. ONGCs conservative bids landed it only 2 blocks, while OIL won licences to 9 blocks.

In a bid to increase its reserve base, Vedanta Limited is planning to invest $2.3 billion towards CAPEX on its oil and gas activities. Vedanta is targeting an increase in production from the current 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day to 300,000 boepd over the next few years. Under the OALP auction, Vedanta recently bid for all 55 blocks on offer in the first round.

The Indonesian Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry floated tenders for six oil and gas blocks were floated yesterday. The blocks on auction are South Jambi B, Makassar Strait, Selatpanjang in Riau, Banyumas, Andika Bumi Kita and South East Mahakam. The ministry priced the bidding document at $5,000.While the bidding submission deadline for onstream blocks is Dec 12th, bids for the exploration blocks will have to be submitted by Dec 10th.

The second auction of small discovered oil and gas blocks in India was launched yesterday. The South Asian nation is looking to quickly monetize its hydrocarbon resources. In the first week of September, the bidding for 59 fields will begin which will close on December 18. Oil Ministry informed that the blocks offered under the latest round have reserves of about 1.4 billion barrels.

Essar Oil subsidiary, Essar Oil and Gas Exploration and Production (EOGEPL) has entered into a gas sale and purchase agreement (GSPA) with state-run GAIL for a 15-year term. GAIL won the bid for the contract floated by EOGEPL. The deal will help monetize EOGEPL’s complete CBM production from the Raniganj East block. The Essar subsidiary has already concluded drilling of 346 out of the 500 CBM wells.

Vedanta Cairn is reaching a final stage in securing 41 hydrocarbon blocks, under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP). The awards were reportedly given based on the recommendations of an Empowered Committee of Secretaries (ECS). Furthermore, ECS will award these blocks to the Anil Agarwal-led firm, nine to public-sector Oil India and two to ONGC. No foreign oil company bid for the first round of OALP.

Sources have confirmed that the British oil major, BP Plc is reportedly leading the auction for the sale of BHP’s onshore shale assets in US. It was after the submission of the offer of over $10 billion that BP became a front-runner. BHP’s sale domain includes their $12 billion takeover of Petrohawk Energy in 2011 whose share value dropped down to $1.60 last year.

The auction of at least 60 oil and gas fields under the Government of India’s Discovered Small Field (DSF) policy has been postponed till July. DSF-II was scheduled for launch around mid-June. The DSF policy, introduced in 2016, offers small discovered fields of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) involving marketing and pricing freedom and lower taxes.

Mexico’s oil regulator, National Hydrocarbons Commission, on Tuesday declared the main bid variables for the auction of 37 onshore blocks scheduled in September. The regulator also released the bid terms for the seven joint ventures on offer with the national oil company, Pemex to be hosted in October. The new bid variables shed the past practice of setting maximum and minimum values for the additional royalty.