"Enron and its joint venture partners for the Tapti and Panna-Mukta fields are planning to jointly invest about $900 million for augmenting operations at these blocks," Enron Oil and Gas India vice-president and country manager Larry B Morse told PTI.

About 130 million dollars would go into the expansion programme of the Panna fields alone, he said.

The Tapti and Panna-Mukta hydrocarbon blocks were awarded to the joint venture between Enron, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Reliance in 1997 and have been operational for about a year now.

Enron and Reliance hold 30 per cent stake each in the joint venture while the remaining 40 per cent is with ONGC.

The Panna field produces both oil and gas while the Tapti field produces only gas, Morse said.

Asked about the American multinational's interest in the 48 exploration blocks offered under the recently announced new exploration licensing policy (NELP), Morse said the company was evaluating the prospects of upstream ventures in India.

"We have identified some blocks in the country, but we are yet to chart our strategy for proceeding further," he said.

Asked whether Enron would bid for the blocks with any joint venture partner, Morse said "such specifics can be finalised only after we are through with our evaluation of the technical feasibility of the blocks.''

The joint venture operating the Tapti block is currently in talks with ONGC for working out the tariff basis for tying in a gas pipeline from the Tapti field to the onshore pipeline network owned by the public sector company.

``Currently we are paying an interim tariff to ONGC for tying in to their pipeline system. We are negotiating with them to form a concrete tariff formula,'' Morse said.

Enron was very keen about India as an emerging energy market and had long- term plans for the country, he said.

Earlier, chief executive of Enron Corporation, Joe Sutton said the multinational company had made a whopping investment plan of about five billion dollars for the next five years in the areas of power and petroleum.

Enron was interested in electricity transmission and petroleum pipeline sectors in the country, Sutton said.

Enron would synchronise its plans with the developments on the policy front which are expected to lead to the opening up of these infrastructure segments, he said.