Govt puts 8 oil & gas blocks on the shelf for OALP bid round VII

• The DGH has said that the closing date for bid submission is February 15, 2022
• The eight blocks (are) spread over six Sedimentary Basins, five states covering 15,766 square kilometres of area

New Delhi: The Central government has launched the bid round VII of Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) on December 16 with a total of eight oil and gas blocks on offer. "With the objective to augment domestic production of Petroleum, the Government of India announces the offer of total eight oil and gas blocks under the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) through International Competitive Bidding for Petroleum Operations that have been identified pursuant to the Expressions of Interest received under the Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP)…," a notice inviting offer (NIO) floated by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) said.

"Companies are invited to bid for exploration, development and monetisation of eight Oil and Gas blocks likely to contain both conventional and/or unconventional hydrocarbon resources distributed in the sedimentary basins of India," said the NIO.

OALP bid round VII: Bids to be submitted by Feb 15, 2022

The DGH has said that the closing date for bid submission is February 15, 2022. The "Eight blocks (are) spread over six Sedimentary Basins, five States covering 15,766 square kilometres of area. Out of eight blocks, five blocks are onland type, two blocks are shallow water-type and one block is ultra deep-water type," said the DGH.

Three out of the five onland blocks are in Assam Arakan or Assam Shelf. One block is in Rajasthan and another block in the Satpura basin. Two shallow water blocks are in Cambay off the Gujarat coast, while one ultra-deepwater block in the Cauvery basin is also on offer. 

OALP bid round VII

The OALP bid round VII adopts "all features of HELP (as revised)-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, Concessional Royalty Rates in case of early commercial production, no Revenue Sharing in Blocks falling in Category –II and III Basins except in case of Wind fall gain etc," said the DGH.

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