i Develop Stocks Advisory

RIL taps three foreign cos to hunt for oil Reliance Industries (RIL) is learnt to be talking to three mid-sized oil companies — Australia’s Santos, Devon Energy and AARCO of the US — to bid for oil and gas blocks in the seventh round of the New Exploration Licencing Policy (NELP). The government has offered 19 deepwater blocks in this round. RIL’s aim is to partner a foreign company with the required technological expertise. Global oil giants like ExxonMobil, Chevron and Conoco Phillips are unlikely to bid in this round. Although the final word is not out yet (bids are set to open only by June end), analysts say no oil major is interested in investing in India’s oil and gas sector at this point, thanks to the policy uncertainties over tax sops and marketing freedom. All the three foreign oilcos have done considerable deepwater work, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico. Devon Energy, a Fortune 500 company with a market cap of $46 billion, has operations in the US and Canada. The company is among North America’s largest producers of natural gas liquids. It is engaged in E&P activities in the Gulf of Mexico, Canada’s Arctic region, China, Brazil and Azerbaijan. In the Gulf of Mexico, Devon holds 2.2 million net acres in the deepwater. The deep Gulf, where depths can be over 10,000 feet, is a promising frontier where Devon has made exciting oil discoveries.