Essar Oil Limited (EOL) signed
a production-sharing contract with the Government of Myanmar for exploration of
oil exploration in two blocks - one each for onshore and offshore blocks. The
contracts were signed by Mr U San Lwin - Managing Director of Myanmar Oil &
Gas Enterprise, on behalf of the Government of Myanmar. The Minister for
Energy, Brigadier General Lun Thi was also present. Mr AN Sinha signed the
contracts on behalf of Essar Oil Limited.
Essar is the first Indian
private sector company to sign an agreement in this area in Myanmar.
EOL's bid for the two
contiguous exploration blocks in offshore (Block A2) area and adjoining on land
area (Block L) was made after detailed examination of geo-scientific data at
MOGE office in January 2005 by the EOL team.
The blocks are ideally
located between proven gas blocks and aligned along the regional corridor of
gas discoveries south of Bangladesh, including the highly productive Sangu Gas
field in Bangladesh. The Rakhine coast lies along the eastern side of these
blocks, providing favorable logistic support.
Essar Oil is a fully
integrated oil company with operations covering the entire value chain of oil
exploration to retailing of petroleum products. It is currently setting up a
10.5 mmtpa refinery at Vadinar, Gujarat on the West Coast of India. It plans to
set up 2500 retail outlets by mid-2006, which will further be increased to 5000
retail outlets by 2008. The company has commissioned over 500 retail outlets
across the country.
EOL is a part of the Essar
Group, one of India's largest corporate houses, with interests spanning the
manufacturing and service sectors - steel, shipping, power, oil and gas,
telecom and construction. The group has an asset base of over Rs20,000 crore
(USD 4.4 billion).
