Based on statements made at the World Energy Policy Summit, it’s possible that the U.S.’s ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) and India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (NSE: ONGC) will reach an agreement next month over Indian shale gas explorations.
From The Economic Times:
“We have given them all data we have on shale gas acreage… Based on their analysis and experience, they will now bring their understanding,” ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Sudhir Vasudeva told reporters on the sidelines of World Energy Policy Summit here.
In its first phase, ONGC hopes to explore for shale gas in the Damodar, Cambay, KG, and Cauvery basins.
A ConocoPhillips team is expected to meet with ONCG in December to determine concrete steps moving forward, following an initial agreement reached earlier in 2012 regarding joint development of shale resources in both India and North America.
So far, ONGC—which doesn’t possess the shale exploration expertise of ConocoPhillips—has drilled four exploratory wells in the Damodar Basin, which could hold as much as 35 trillion cubic feet, with 8 of that readily recoverable.
ONGC holds 33 deepwater blocks along India’s East and West coasts.
