News: GAIL mulls oil, gas bids with 6 foreign cos

(RTR 13/09/2006) New Delhi - India's state-run gas firm GAIL Ltd. is in talks with at least six foreign firms to jointly bid for Indian oil and gas blocks that the government plans to auction, a company official said on Wednesday.

Talks were at an advanced stage with Italy's ENI, Oman's Petrogas E&P LLC, U.K.'s Foresight Oil Ltd., Calgary's Silver Bay Resources Ltd. and Australia's Tap Oil Ltd.

GAIL, which plans to bid for about 20 of the blocks on offer, is also looking at partnering South Korea's Daewoo International. Bids in India's largest ever exploration licensing round must be submitted by Sept. 15.

The firm is also in talks with several Indian firms, including Gujarat State Petroleum Corp., Jubilant Enpro, and Oil and Natural Gas Corp., India's most valuable company, for joint bidding, the official said.

It is concentrating on onland and shallow water blocks, but may look at others.

"We may bid for some deepwater blocks depending on the response from our likely partners," the official told Reuters.

Any bids for deepwater blocks would likely be in association with ENI. The acreage offered in the latest round includes 24 deepwater, 25 onland, and six shallow water offshore blocks.

GAIL's shares were up 0.7 percent in a strong Mumbai market at 3.19 p.m. local time.