According to a Reuters report yesterday, an unnamed GAIL official told the news service that the Indian state-run gas firm planned to bid for about 20 of the blocks on offer in what will be the country’s largest-ever exploration licensing round.

Tap Oil managing director Paul Underwood was unavailable for comment when PetroleumNews.net contacted his office yesterday and this morning.

The acreage under offer includes 24 deepwater, 25 onshore and six shallow water offshore blocks.

The GAIL official was quoted as saying the joint venture would mainly concentrate on onshore and shallow water blocks, but may bid for some deepwater acreage depending on the response from the potential partners.

Besides Tap, GAIL was also reported to be in advanced discussions with Italy’s ENI, Oman’s Petrogas, UK’s Foresight Oil and Calgary’s Silver Bay Resources.

Negotiations were also taking place with several Indian firms, including Gujarat State Petroleum, Jubilant Enpro and Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC).