Doing business with India to be made easier, promises Dharmendra Pradhan

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has promised a "transparent regulatory regime" for greater ease in doing business with India. He said so while attending a road show in Houston, Texas to promote the auction of 46 discovered oil and gas fields.

These fields, which were discovered by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) and Oil India LTD (OIL), are predicted to be put on production through speedy efforts.

The road show was attended by several global oil-related companies, including Magna Energy, BP, IHS Energy, Texas Oil & Gas Technology, Nabors, McDermott, Reliance Exploration and Production DMCC, KPMG, Halliburton, Joshi Technologies International, Vega Energy, and Schlumberger. For all details of these oil and gas fields to be made available to the interested parties, the road show had extensive and detailed presentations and one-on-one meetings with the companies.

Some companies, like BG, Cairn Energy, ONGC, and RIL also shared their happy experiences when they worked in the Indian exploration and production (E&P) sector.

The minister, in this moment of glory, promised a "transparent regulatory regime" and greater ease of doing business, adding that "We recognise that the need of the hour is to increase the domestic energy production by unlocking India's hydrocarbon potential."

The current round of bidding round is also being held under a revised set of guidelines which are industry friendly; the Discovered Small Fields Policy is also acting as the regulatory framework.

The round is seeing potential investors being offered 67 fields in 46 contract areas, across 9 sedimentary basins, through International Competitive Bidding in the oil and gas producing basins.

36 of these fields are located in offshore areas, while the rest 31 are in on land basins. These fields, together, have an estimated 625 Million barrels of Oil and Oil Equivalent Gas in-place volumes, while being spread over 1500 square kilometers.

The show turned out to be a hit, with the hall full of attendees, including heads of major energy companies, think tanks, analysts, Indian Americans with interest, oil lobbyist, diplomats and various technologists. Pradhan took this opportunity to assure all possible support from his Ministry and the Government of India so that investors’ endeavours can reach good results.

"The bid timelines are stringent and my team is geared to ensure a smooth process. I look forward to an encouraging participation in the bidding from you all. We have also setup a facilitation cell for assisting you throughout the bid process," he said amidst a thunderous applause.

Image source