Monday, January 31 2005 12:51 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and its partner Oil India Ltd have won an oil block in Libya in the first ever joint foray in oil and gas exploration overseas.

IOC-OIL won onshore Block-086 in the highly prospective Sirte basin, officials in IOC said.

The two firms had last month forged an alliance for joint venture into oil and gas exploration and production in other countries.

Officials said under the conditions of the license, IOC-OIL will get 18.4 per cent share of any future production in the block, with the remaining 81.6 per cent going to Libya's national oil company.

If oil is proven in the license areas, Libya, which is a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, will fund half of the exploration and development costs.

Block-086 measures 7087 sq kms and IOC-OIL consortium, which gave no signing bonus, had bid 18.4 per cent of production towards recovery of cost with the balance oil being committed to the Government of Libya.

OIL will be the operator of the block, which the IOC-OIL consortium won in the first offering of oil blocks by Libya after lifting of US sanctions. Three giant US oil companies won 11 of the 15 Libyan oil exploration and production sharing agreements contested by 56 international companies.

Officials said that IOC-OIL will bid for at least two out of the 40 licenses Libya proposes to offer in the second round next month.