Indian oilBSE -2.07 % PSUs are mulling to acquire up to 20 percent stake in an oil field belonging to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in UAE, Utpal Bora, CMD of Oil IndiaBSE -1.05 % Limited said today.
“One offer has come from ADNOC of UAE. They are offering some stake in a field. It is a producing oil field. We are now doing some due diligence now whether it is worth investing or not,” Bora told PTI.
“They are offering around 20 percent stake. We will be one of the companies (mulling to acquire the stake). 20 percent (stake) will be among the three or four oil companies (PSUs). We are part of the consortium (BPCLBSE -2.02 %, OVL, OIL and others),” said Bora.
On OIL’s outlook, Bora said the PSU is planning to spend Rs 4,000 crore towards capex during the current fiscal.
“Our capex plan is Rs 4,000 crore for 2017-18. The capex is for developmental drilling and exploratory drilling programme and for creating infrastructure,” he said.
According to him, most of the oil and gas blocks that the company is operating are old ones.
“Going by the current rate we will produce more. It will be 3.35 million tonnes this year. Last year it was 3.28 million tonnes. We have three producing assets — two in Russia and one in USA. We have exploration assets in four countries,” he added.
On surrendering some of the non-viable blocks, he said they have already surrendered five blocks which were put up in the marginal oil fields auction held last year.
“What they (the government) are saying is that if there are some fields which are marginalised in nature and the company does not have plans, then the government said they will auction it.
“There was an auction last time for marginalised fields. Five out of six, marginalised fields have been given by OIL. We gave them because they are not economically viable for us,” he added.
On the Government’s moves with regard to merger of oil PSUs, he said they have not received any official communication on the issue.
