The government is expecting a 'huge' response to its largest ever auction of 55 oil and gas blocks for which bids close on Friday.
Supermajors Chevron and ExxonMobil of the United States may make maiden bids with Reliance Industries, while Royal Dutch/Shell may enter with state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), industry sources said.
Italy's ENI was also expected to make bid along with ONGC for atleast couple of deep sea blocks on offer while state-run gas utility GAIL (India) Ltd is finalising joint bidding pact with ENI, Daewoo International of South Korea and Gazprom of Russia.
Cairn Energy of UK is likely to concentrate more on onland and shallow water blocks but new entrant Reliance Natural Resources Ltd of the Anil Ambani Group is expected to make "very aggressive" bids for most of the blocks.
Sources said 47 companies, including 30 foreign, had bought data for the 55 blocks on offer.
Among the firms which bought the data include ENI of Italy, Cairn Energy of UK, BHP Billiton, BG Group of UK, Shell, Petronas of Malaysia, Conoco Phillips of US, BP of UK, Petrobras of Brazil, Total of France, Daewoo International of South Korea and Chevron of US.
Among the Indian firms buying block data including the usual bidders ONGC, Reliance, GAIL and RNRL, sources said. The acreage offered includes 24 deep-water blocks, with seven in the Krishna-Godavari basin, where Reliance Industries has struck 14 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves.
The 25 onshore blocks include three in Rajasthan, where Cairn has made a huge oil discovery. There are also six offshore blocks in shallow waters.
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