“National Iranian Oil Co. had put on offer 17 offshore and onshore oil and gas blocks for exploration and development. The Essar Group, through its investment subsidiary based in Mauritius, Essar Infrastructure Holding Ltd., has bid for three blocks,” a company official said.
The company said it bid for two onshore blocks and one offshore block, which are in the Naft Shahr onshore block, Bandar Abbas block and Laleh offshore block. State-run NIOC recently extended the original deadline of the bids from June 20 to Aug. 1.
It said the deadline was extended following the request made by global oil and gas companies. It said these companies purchased relevant documents but did not have enough time to submit bids.
Essar says it bid alone for these blocks and recently submitted bids along with Gujarat State Petroleum Corp. for a block in Syria. The company also holds two blocks in Myanmar, three in Madagascar and one in Nigeria.
It is scouting for opportunities in upstream sectors in 12 countries in the Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa, the official said. He said Essar plans to produce 150,000 barrels of oil per day from its domestic and overseas fields in the next three years.
