Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday said the government will hold the tenth round of auctions for oil and gas blocks under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) in the current fiscal.
The auction, which will be held almost four years after the ninth round received a lukewarm response in 2010-11, is expected to bring in investments and boost domestic production.
Talking to reporters in Hyderabad, the minister said, “In this financial year the 10th round of auctions will be held. We are talking to stakeholders, international experts.”
‘Open acreage’
Mr Pradhan added that the government is looking to introduce “open acreage” system and also change the formula for the production sharing agreement.
The open acreage system will enable bidders to bid for blocks on offer at any time of the year, and data for these blocks would be made available to the bidders through the National Data Repository.
“In NELP-X, there will be three major thrust areas. There are some issues with the current production sharing model. CAG has also made some observations,” he said. The government is also planning to allow the bidder or contractor to extract any unconventional hydrocarbons (other than oil and gas) if found, he added.
