The NEC-DWN-2004/1 and NEC-DWN-2004/2 blocks cover about 16,500 square kilometres in the Northeast Coast Basin. They are about 250km south-southeast of Kolkata and 175km from the Indian coast in water depths ranging from 400m to 2300m.

Santos was awarded the blocks as part of the NELP VI (New Exploration Licensing Policy) bid round recently conducted by the Indian Government, which awarded 52 permits to various domestic and overseas companies, with 25 of those going to state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp.

Santos has 100% equity in the acreage and has committed to an eight-year $US70 million ($A90 million) work program.

The work program for Block NEC-DWN-2004/2 includes 2D and 3D seismic surveys and one exploration well. The program for NEC-DWN-2004/1 consists of 2D and 3D seismic surveys.

These new blocks give Santos a significant offshore exploration opportunity in a frontier basin, according to managing director John Ellice-Flint.

“The new blocks are well situated within the emerging Tertiary clastic Bengal Fan play that has proved successful in recent gas discoveries in the northern Bay of Bengal,” he said.

“Santos’ move into India is in line with the company’s strategy to engage in an active and focused exploration program in Asia and the Middle East.”

It follows two other new country entries for the Adelaide-based company in the past 19 months – Kyrgyzstan in August 2005 and Vietnam in April 2006.