The Petroleum Ministry has offered eight oil and gas blocks spread across 5 States covering 15,766 square kilometers in the seventh bid round of the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP). The last date of submission of bids is February 15 next year.

With the objective to augment domestic production of petroleum, the Centre has announced the offer of eight oil and gas blocks under the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) through international competitive bidding (ICB) for petroleum operations, said the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH).

“Companies have been invited to bid for exploration, development and monetisation of the eight oil and gas blocks likely to contain both conventional and/or unconventional hydrocarbon resources, distributed in the sedimentary basins of India. Of the total blocks, five are onland type, while two are shallow water blocks and one is an ultra deep water type block,” it added.

The Assam Arakan fold belt has one block, while the Assam Shelf has two. Rajasthan has one block, whereas one block is in the Satpura basin and two shallow water blocks are in Cambay, off the Gujarat coast. The ultra-deepwater block is in the Cauvery basin.

DGH said that eligible companies, either alone or in consortium, may bid for one or more blocks. Any company or a consortium can put only one bid as an operator or non-operator for one particular block. The bids are to be submitted through the e-bidding portal.

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