RIL, ONGC woo Chevron for joint Nelp VII bids
MUMBAI: India's biggest firm Reliance Industries (RIL) and state-owned major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) are wooing US major Chevron Corporation to jointly bid for oil and gas exploration blocks. The bidding for the seventh round under the Nelp (National Exploration and Licensing Policy) is expected later this month. Chevron, however, is cool about the offers. It is more interested in bidding for discovered fields where the risk is less and the payback period is shorter. Both RIL and ONGC have invited Chevron in order to avail of Chevron's expertise and advanced technology in the deep water exploration. It is learnt that one of the company has also agreed to the extent of offering operatorship of the block to Chevron, if the bid is successful. RIL did not respond to an email questionnaire on the issue but RIL's president, petroleum business, PMS Prasad had earlier told this paper about jointly bidding with Chevron for Nelp VII. ONGC sources confirmed