NEW DELHI: Global energy research and analytics firm Wood Mackenzie, popularly referred as WoodMac, has described India as the potential licensing wild card of deepwater oil and gas exploration in 2023, acknowledging that sectoral reforms unleashed since 2014 by the Narendra Modi-led government is attracting the world majors and could lead to big discoveries.
“Greater participation by the majors in India’s energy sector has long been heralded, but often stalled due to a challenging investment environment. However, we now believe the risk/reward balance in deepwater exploration is sufficiently tempting to bring in the industry’s big players,” the agency said in its latest report. It said global majors such as ExxonMobil, Total and Chevron are looking at deepwater opportunities with state-owned ONGC and more partnerships are in the pipeline. “They have been lured by the availability of new unexplored blocks, attractive fiscal terms and rising prices. ”
