NEW DELHI, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Oil majors Exxon Mobil Corp, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and France's Total have shown interest in bidding for blocks offered inSri Lanka's current licensing round, the island nation'supstream regulator said on Thursday.
Sri Lanka has tried to reinvigorate oil and gas explorationefforts since the end of a three-decade war with Tamilseparatists in May 2009. The country does not currently produceoil and spent $5 billion on imports in 2012.
Italy's ENI and India's ONGC Videsh andCairn India could also bid for the blocks, SaliyaWickramasuriya, head of the Petroleum Resource DevelopmentSecretariat (PRDS), told Reuters at an industry event.
Sri Lanka expects to award 13 exploration blocks in theCauvery and Mannar basins off its northwest coast in the firstquarter of 2014.
"(These) six and some smaller companies have shown interestas of now ... on more than one occasion they have visited us andcontinue to seek clarification on terms of the contracts,"Wickramasuriya said.
Sri Lanka has also offered six ultra-deepwater blocks offthe southeastern coast for a joint study with PRDS to establishtheir hydrocarbon potential.
Total and a couple of other companies are eyeing these jointstudy blocks, Wickramasuriya said.
The first review of proposals will take place next week,followed by an announcement in October, he said.
"We will review every month," Wickramasuriya added.
