GSPC Begins Process to Sell Stake in 7 Onshore O&G Blocks

GSPC has finalized four private firms, including one foreign entity, for offloading its stake in seven oil and gas blocks. The selected companies include billionaire Dilip Shanghvi backed Sun Petro, Kiri and Company Logistics Pvt Ltd, Gujarat Natural Resources Ltd (GNRL) and Singapore based TH Investments Pte Ltd.

Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute, GSPC’s energy research arm, had on March 1 floated a tender to farm out two operating and 10 non-operating exploration and production fields. The deadline for the bid submission was delayed multiple times after some central PSUs demanded the same.

Of the 12 fields, GSPC is the operator in two of them, Unawa and Miroli, while it is non-operating partner in the rest. Of these 10 blocks, five are operated by ONGC, three by GNRL and one each by Sun Petro and Australian oil explorer Oilex. While GNRL successfully won the three blocks where it was the operator, the fourth block that it won eventually earlier saw Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd emerging as the highest bidder.