The ministry of petroleum and natural gas (MoPNG) has decided to extend the deadline for bid submissions for the Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP) bidding round IX. The bidding round was initiated by the government in January. The original deadline of February 29 has been pushed forward to May 15, 2024. The bidding round offers eight blocks covering an area of 0.42 lakh square kilometres (sqkm) for exploration and production of hydrocarbons. The blocks are distributed across various regions, including three in the Cauvery basin, two each in Saurashtra and Assam shelf, and one in the Cambay basin.
Among these blocks, six are categorized under category-I basins, indicating proven hydrocarbon resources with established commercial production, while the remaining two fall under category-II, implying contingent resources yet to be converted to recoverable reserves and commercial production. No blocks are designated as Category-III, which signifies prospective resources with no current hydrocarbon discovery and limited exploration data.
In the ninth OALP round, the blocks are distributed across ultra deep-water (27,154 sqkm), Onland (3,666 sqkm), and Shallow Water (11,039 sq.km) areas. In the previous round, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL) secured eight out of the ten oil and gas blocks offered. Additionally, a consortium consisting of Reliance Industries and bp, along with Sun Petrochemicals, secured one block each. ONGC secured the highest number of blocks (seven), while OIL secured one.
As reported by businessline, the previous seven OALP bid rounds resulted in the awarding of 134 blocks, covering an area of about 2,07,691 sqkm to leading exploration and production companies. With the addition of ten more blocks under round-VIII, a total of 144 exploratory blocks have been awarded under the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) regime, covering an area of 2,42,055 sq km. The OALP was introduced as part of the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) in March 2016.
