DSF bid round III: 75 discoveries on offer; bidding opens on Feb 1, says DGH

• Bidding for the oil and gas fields will open on February 1, 2022 and close on March 15, 2022
• According to the DGH, the 32 offered contract areas on offer have a total resource potential of around 230 million tonnes of oil equivalent (MMtoe)

New Delhi: The government has put up a total of 75 small and marginal oil and gas discoveries up for international competitive bidding under bid round III of Discovered Small Fields (DSF) policy. Bidding for the oil and gas fields will open on February 1, 2022 and close on March 15, 2022, said the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH). Most of the fields on the list belong to state-run Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). 

"With the objective to augment domestic production of Crude oil and Natural Gas, the Government of India (Government) announces the offer of 75 fields under the Discovered Small Field Policy through International Competitive Bidding (ICB). These fields have been discovered by Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC), Oil India Ltd (OIL) and others. These are envisaged to be put on production through expeditious efforts," said the Notice Inviting Offer (NIO) document issued by the DGH.

DSF bid round III: 32 contract areas on offer

The DGH said that companies are invited to bid for developing and monetising 32 contract areas, comprising 75 oil and gas fields. "Eleven contract areas are located in Onland, Twenty (20) Contract Areas are located in Shallow water Offshore and One (01) Contract Area is located in Deepwater Offshore. Companies, either alone or in consortium of unincorporated or incorporated Joint ventures, may bid for one or more Contract Areas," said the DGH.

"The bids are to be submitted through the e-bidding portal (https://ebidding.dghindia.gov.in) set up for this purpose," it added.

The 75 fields are spread over a combined total area of more than 13,000 square kilometres in nine sedimentary basins. "The fields on offer include a few of the nomination fields of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, and some of the relinquished/unmonetised discoveries," said the DGH.

75 fields on offer have potential of 1.7 billion barrels OEG

According to the DGH, the 32 offered contract areas on offer have a total resource potential of around 230 million tonnes of oil equivalent (MMtoe) or 1.7 billion barrels (oil & oil equivalent of gas (OEG)).

DSF policy

The Centre had launched Discovered Small Field (DSF) Policy in 2015 for awarding discovered acreages and monetise the unmonetised discoveries. The DSF policy has multiple attractive features like revenue sharing contract model with low regulatory burden, no minimum biddable work programme, no prior technical qualification required, no upfront signature bonus, etc.

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