Urja Bharat to operate onshore block

State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Bharat PetroResources Ltd (BPRL) will invest US$170 million on exploring an oil block in Abu Dhabi.

The 50:50 IOC and BPRL partnership Urja Bharat Pte Ltd won the Abu Dhabi block through a competitive bid round.

“IOC and BPRL, a subsidiary of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), acting jointly as a consortium through Urja Bharat Pte Ltd have been awarded 100% stake in the Abu Dhabi Onshore Block 1 Concession,” IOC said in a regulatory filing.

The concession has been awarded by the Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC), on behalf of the Abu Dhabi government.

“The Indian consortium will make an investment of $170 million for the exploration activities,” said IOC.

India needs to aggressively invest in overseas hydrocarbon resources to reduce the over 80% crude oil imports which burdens its budgets, energy industry observers said.

Though India has “a very aggressive green energy” development programme, it would continue to depend on imported crude oil, which in recent years have become important for the large-scale refineries in the country are now exporting value-added refined petroleum products, they said. fiinews.com