By IANS,
New Delhi : With successful road shows in North America, Minister of State for Petroleum Jitin Prasada Friday hoped to see more foreign companies participating in the latest round of auctions for India’s hydrocarbon assets.
Prasada held road shows in Calgary in Canada and Houston in the US this month to generate interest in the eighth round of auctions of oil and gas blocks and fourth round of inviting bids for coalbed methane.
Over two dozen foreign exploration and production companies took part in the two road shows including British Gas, British Petroleum, Shell, BHP Billiton, Gaz de France, Gazprom and Niko Resources.
“The government is committed to complete evaluation, award and signing of production sharing contracts in a reasonable time frame and the whole process would be completed in a transparent manner,” said a statement issued by the petroleum ministry.
As per the statement, Prasada hoped that foreign companies would take the advantage of the attractive investment opportunities offered in the latest round of auctions.
The next scheduled road shows will be in London, Perth and Brisbane, with Oct 12 being the last date for receiving bids.