"An open acreage policy will be much more attractive to us as we can choose the time of entering India’s exploration sector, and also choose the blocks we want to explore," a senior Shell official said.
Shell, like British Petroleum, Chevron, Exxon, Petrobras and Total, did not bid for exploration blocks in earlier NELP rounds.
The timing, to offer the auction of exploration blocks in India in June or July, does not suit most oil companies as they have already put in their capital expenditure on exploration into other areas across the world, the Shell official said.
"By July, we have already put in our annual planned expenditure for exploration in projects. That is one of the reasons why we are not able to bid in the auction in India," said an official of British Gas, which won one exploration block in NELP VI, in partnership with ONGC.
Government officials say the launch of the OALP is slated to take place soon. "We are working towards offering the open acreage policy together with NELP VII. However, that would involve lot of work as data for areas across the country have to be collected," an official at the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons said.
-SRBP-
