Government-owned oil explorer, Oil India (OIL), has ramped up its capital expenditure (cap-ex) for

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2010-11 by more than 80 per cent. Bulk of this expenditure will be put in exploration activities as OIL expands its footprint to 12 new states in the country and seven countries overseas.

“Our capital expenditure for the next financial year will be Rs 4,200 crore. We spent Rs 2,300 crore in the present financial year,” TK Ananth Kumar, director (finance) of OIL told Financial Chronicle. Internal accruals and funds raised from its initial pubic issue (IPO) will be used to finance these capital expenses, said Kumar.

OIL was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange at a premium of over 8 per cent against its issue price of Rs 1,050 per share in October last year. The IPO was over-subscribed 30.81 times and the company mopped up Rs 2,780 crore.

About 60 per cent of capex will be utilised for exploration activities, which is our primary focus, said Kumar. OIL has undertaken exploration of 27 blocks in the country, out of which it is the operator in 12 blocks.

Outside the country, OIL has won two on-shore assets in Libya, block 86 and 102(4), as the operator. It is working as consortium partner in onshore block Shakti at Gabon, Farsi field in offshore Iran, Area 95 / 96 (block 2/1, 2 & 4) in Libya, OPL 205 area in Nigeria and block 82 and 83 in onshore Yemen.

“We will spend close to Rs 1,200 crore for production activities and another Rs 500 crore will be spent on capital equipments,” said Kumar.