The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas plans to be ready with a new policy for auctioning hydrocarbon blocks by the end of the fiscal, said Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Petroleum and Natural Gas.

According to the consultation paper, the Ministry proposes to give pricing and marketing freedom for natural gas produced from hydrocarbon blocks auctioned in future. It also proposes to introduce a uniform licensing policy, revenue sharing contract as well as an open acreage licensing policy.

“This is not something very radical that we have done. In the last few months we had come out with a marginal field policy also and all these issues came out then. The feedback from stakeholders on the consultation paper will come by November 20 based on which we will make a new policy and take it to the Cabinet. Our efforts are to finalise the policy within this fiscal year itself,” Pradhan told reporters at the sidelines of the Bio Energy Summit organised by Confederation of Indian Industry.

For the new bidding rounds, the aim was to make it more progressive, more transparent and more market friendly, he said.

Meanwhile, speaking at the summit, Pradhan said that the falling crude oil price will not change the government’s targets and commitments towards increased green energy usage.

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