OIL to foray into consultancy services

JAIPUR: Government owned Oil India Limited is planning to foray into oilfield services consultancy business. Oil India Limited general manager (HR & BD) N K Bharali told ET that the oil company is seriously looking into offering its oilfield expertise to oil exploration companies in India and abroad.

���We have an experienced team of oil experts. A lot of NELP blocks are transiting from exploration into development stage. Here lies a big business opportunity for company like us. We want to make most of it,��� he said.

The company is also on a look out for acquiring producing assets abroad. It has appointed energy consultant PFC Energy International to draw up the acquisition strategy. ���They have identified a few oil producing assets and given us a checklist to zero in on the one we want. The checklist includes factor like economic proposition, reserve and base, geopolitical situation and policies of respective countries.

We are in the process of finalizing the properties,��� he said. The company plans to come out with an IPO worth Rs 2,800 crore to fund requirements towards exploration and appraisal activities, development activities in producing fields and purchase of equipments and contracts for the facilities. Apart from that, the company will use its cash reserves of Rs 6,500 crore for acquisition and expansion process.