State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) on Thursday walked away with all the seven oil and gas blocks on offer in the latest bid round that saw just eight bids coming in.
ONGC signed contracts for the seven blocks at an event where Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and other Ministry officials were also present.
“These seven blocks are adding exploration acreage of 18,510 sq. km spread over three sedimentary basins of India and have a resource potential of approximately 33 billion barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas,” he said.
The latest licensing round for allowing companies to explore for oil and natural gas was held on revamped terms but saw only ONGC and Oil India Ltd. participating. ONGC put in bids for all seven blocks on offer, while Oil India put in an offer for one block at the close of bidding on October 31, 2019.
ONGC was the sole bidder for five blocks in Madhya Pradesh and one in West Bengal and it was locked in competition with Oil India for one block in Rajasthan.
ONGC walked away with all the seven blocks on superior bids. According to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), seven on-land blocks were on offer in the fourth round of Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) with an area of about 18,510 sq km.
“With the culmination of Bid Round IV today (Thursday), we have awarded 94 blocks under the exploration policy in a very short time span of two and a half years. These 94 blocks cover an exploratory area of approximately 1,36,800 sq. km over 16 Indian sedimentary basins,” Mr. Pradhan said.
“Investors in the 94 blocks have committed 29,270 line km of 2D seismic survey and 43,272 sq. km of 3D seismic survey [and] 369 numbers of exploratory wells. This will generate investment... of $2.35 billion (about ₹16,450 crore) over the next 3/4 years in the exploratory activities alone.”
