New Delhi: The government has extended the deadline for submission of bids under the 10th round of India’s Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP-X) for the fourth time, granting prospective investors an additional three months. “Bid submission closing date for OALP Bid Round X (has been) extended till May 29, 2026,” the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons said on its website.
The regulator did not specify reasons for the extension. However, industry sources said the additional time is likely aimed at allowing bidders to assess newly liberalised upstream rules framed after Parliament passed the Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Amendment Bill.
OALP-X was launched in February during India Energy Week 2025 in New Delhi and was originally scheduled to close by end-July 2025. The deadline was first extended to October 31, then to December 31, 2025, followed by a third extension to February 18, 2026, before the latest deferment to May 29, 2026.
In contrast, the bid submission deadline for the fourth Discovered Small Field (DSF) round and the special coal-bed methane (CBM) round remains unchanged at February 18, 2026.
Under OALP-X, 25 blocks covering about 191,986 sq km have been offered for exploration and production of oil and gas. According to the DGH, the acreage includes six onshore blocks, six shallow-water tracts, one deepwater block and 12 ultra-deepwater blocks spread across 13 sedimentary basins.
The round also features four blocks spanning 47,058 sq km in the Andaman basin, which Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said could hold oil and gas volumes larger than those discovered in Guyana.
OALP-X represents the largest area offered so far for hydrocarbon exploration in India. Across the previous nine rounds, a total of 3.78 lakh sq km had been put up for bidding.
The immediately preceding OALP-IX round was the largest until now, offering 28 blocks over 1.36 lakh sq km.
OALP-IX, concluded in September 2024, attracted four bidders — Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Oil India Ltd, and private sector player Vedanta Ltd — with most blocks receiving only two bids, according to the DGH.
The round also marked the first instance of Reliance Industries Ltd and BP Plc bidding jointly with ONGC for a Gujarat offshore block.
ONGC secured 11 blocks independently and three more in partnership with OIL, including the Gujarat-Saurashtra shallow-water block bid alongside Reliance-BP. Vedanta, which bid for all 28 blocks, won seven, while OIL took the remaining six.
OALP rounds were introduced after India adopted an open acreage regime in 2016, replacing the earlier system where the government identified and auctioned blocks.
Under the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP), explorers are allowed to identify and propose blocks for bidding. The policy offers incentives such as lower royalty rates, concessional levies for early production, removal of oil cess, exploration rights across the full contract term, and pricing and marketing freedom.
Blocks are awarded based on revenue-sharing terms offered to the government and the work programmes committed by bidders.
The government has been banking on expanded exploration to raise domestic oil and gas output and reduce India’s annual crude import bill of about USD 220 billion.
Under the open acreage framework, identified areas are aggregated and auctioned twice a year, with the firm proposing an area receiving a five-point bidding advantage.
Vedanta dominated the first OALP round, securing 41 of the 55 blocks on offer, and picked up another 10 blocks in subsequent rounds. Later rounds have largely been led by state-owned producers.
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