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Vedanta, ONGC, Reliance Industries–BP, Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat PetroResources have bid to develop oil and gas blocks in the second and third rounds of bidding under the Open Acreage License Policy (OALP).
Sun Petrochemicals and GAIL (India) are also in the fray.
“The RIL-BP joint venture has put in one bid. Vedanta has bid for 30 contract areas while ONGC has bid for 20. These bids will be opened on May 25,” an official at the Directorate-General of Hydrocarbons told BusinessLine .
“Fifth window of EoI submission will start on May 16 and will end on November 15,” a DGH statement said.
After delaying the bid submission deadlines, the DGH has been simultaneously conducting the second and third round of bids under the OALP. There are 23 blocks spread over 12 sedimentary basins in the third round. In the second round, there are 14 blocks spread over 7 sedimentary basins.
Out of 23 blocks on offer in the third round, 5 are Coal Bed Methane (CBM) blocks. The 18 oil and gas blocks are based on the expression of interest submitted by the bidders and 5 CBM blocks have been carved out by the DGH. In the second round, 10 blocks are based on EoI submitted by the bidders and 4 blocks have been carved out by the DGH.
Blocks offered in this round are following the fiscal regime defined under the Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy. This includes reduced royalty rates, no oil cess, uniform licensing system, marketing and pricing freedom, Revenue Sharing Model, exploration rights on all retained area for full contract life among others, according to the DGH.
According to a PTI report, Petroleuum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had at the time of launch of OALP-II bid round on January 7 said that an investment of about ₹40,000 crore is expected in the prospecting of oil and gas in blocks offered.
In the first round of OALP last year, as much as ₹60,000 crore was committed in the exploration of oil and gas in 55 blocks or areas.
In the third round, the government is expecting up to ₹49,000 crore of investment that it hopes will help raise domestic output and cut imports.
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