The oil exploration company Oil India Ltd (OIL) is aggressively looking to expanding its oil properties. The company also plans to spend 46 per cent of its around Rs 5,000 crore capital outlay in 2010-11 on mergers and acquisitions.
OIL in an analyst presentation said that it will be looking to acquire small and medium sized oil and gas producing properties in a joint venture with Indian Oil Corporation, which is supported by $2 billion cash. OIL currently has 30 E&P blocks in India. It recently made 15 small to medium size discoveries in oil and gas. Overseas, OIL has 19 oil and gas blocks in Egypt, Gabon, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Timor Leste, Venezuela and Yemen.
The public sector oil company also plans to invest $1.9 billion in the next two fiscal years. OIL will spend 32 per cent of its capex in FY 11 on exploration and appraisal of its field, while 12 per cent will be spent for development drilling.
The company will work to enhance the production of crude oil from the existing assets in the Northeast region. OIL will spend six per cent of the capex for domestic assets and another four per cent for its overseas projects.
OIL has come out with extensive expansion plans after it recently got listed on the stock exchanges. The PSU is also looking to diversify into new areas. It plans to venture into shale gas in its nominated acreage in the Northeast region. It is also looking to enter the down stream ventures of refining and petrochemicals on a selective basis.
The company already has 26 per cent equity in Numaligarh Refinery Limited and 10 per cent stake in Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Ltd.
The state-run oil company has also signed a MoU with other PSU firms GAIL, HPCL, IOCL and BPCL for city gas projects.