India will host a series of road shows in major cities worldwide - including Canada - to woo foreign exploration companies to hunt for oil in the country
An Indian Petroleum Ministry official said the proposed road show begins in New Delhi on March 10 and will travel to Britain, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Doha and Dubai.
The four-month road show is part of an effort to attract oil exploration companies to vie for 55 new potential oil and natural gas blocks in India that opens for bidding today under the sixth round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy.
"The idea of the road show is to sensitise and orient global bidders about details of the locations for exploration and make them realise how lucrative the offer could be," said a government official.
The 55 blocks on offer - 25 onshore, 24 deep-water and six shallow-water blocks - account for half the total number awarded in the previous five international competitive biddings.
The onshore blocks being offered are located throughout India, while the offshore blocks are located off the country’s western and eastern coasts and the Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Indian Ocean.
Global bidding is also open for 10 coal-bed methane blocks in the country.
India imports 70 percent of the oil it consumes, with an estimated requirement of 2.2 million barrels per day.
Its domestic production is barely 800,000 barrels per day, although according to various surveys and studies, India’s total oil reserves are estimated at about 5.4 billion barrels.
The bidding process will end on Sept 15.
India’s Finance Ministry released its economic survey for 2005 to 2006, a day ahead of the annual budget.
The survey predicts a continued healthy growth rate of 8 percent.
But it noted that the country’s ability to accelerate economic growth was "intricately intertwined" with infrastructure improvement such as roads, ports and electricity.
Indian ports take an average of eight times longer than Singapore to turn around ships.
Also, manufacturers pay twice as much than in China for electricity.
"Infrastructure probably will receive a great deal of attention in the budget," said economist Ramya Suryanarayanan of Ideaglobal in Singapore.
At the moment, India spends a seventh of China’s US$150 billion (C$170 billion) investment in infrastructure each year, according to Morgan Stanley.
It also said that India needs to learn from China about bringing flexible labour laws that would help create more jobs.
