State owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) has entered into an agreement with Australian company Norwest Energy to acquire assets of Shale Gas in Australia.

In a statement today, the company said it has executed a letter of intent with Norwest Energy through Bharat PetroResources (BPRL)- BPCL’s 100 per cent owned subsidiary for upstream activities, for farming into two exploration acreages in the Perth basin (EP413 and TP/15) which hold shale gas potential.

Currently, Norwest holds 100 per cent interest in TP15 and 55.6 per cent in EP413 and is the operator in both these blocks.

BPRL will acquire half of Norwest’s interests in each of these blocks. Upon execution of the transaction and after getting approval from the Australian authorities, BPRLwould hold 50 per cent interest in TP15 and 27.8 per cent in EP 413.

With this, BharatResources committment for these projects will be around US US $ 13.5 million for exploration and drilling funding, including a carry of part of Norwest’s share of the investment. BPCL through its subsidiary already has interests in two exploratin permits in the Australian region. Upon completion of this transaction, BPRL’s asset portfolio would comprise a total of 28 blocks, 19 of them outside India.

Also Read

• BPCL exploration arm to drill 16 wells this year
• Oil India to form JV with US company for shale gas
• RIL & Atlas Energy on global shale gas hunt
• R K Singh appointed as new chairman of BPCL
• Policy on shale gas exploration soon