23 oil blocks to go under hammer in OALP-III round

GREATER NOIDA: India on Sunday offered 23 oil and gas and CBM blocks for bidding in the third round of Open Acreage Licensing Policy, expecting up to $700 million of investment that it hoped will help raise domestic output and cut imports. Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan launched the OALP-III bid round at the Petrotech 2019 conference here on the outskirts of Delhi. "In OALPIII, 23 blocks in 12 sedimentary basins are being offered. Of these five are coal-bed methane (CBM) blocks. Total area on offer is about 31,000 square kilometers," he said. Last date for bidding is April 10. OALP-III will run concurrently with OALP-II, where 14 blocks covering an area of close to 30,000 sq km is on offer for bidding, he said, adding that in OALP-I, 55 blocks covering an area of 60,000 sq km were offered in January 2018 and awarded in October last year. "In one year, we have added about 1.2 lakh sq km of area to exploration kitty. This compares to 90,000 sq km area under exploration previously," he said. The area under exploration will double by the time the round ends. "Our effort is to accelerate exploration of all sedimentary basins of the country," he said. The third round is expected to "generate immediate exploration work commitment of around $600-700 million," it said. In the first round of OALP, as much as Rs 60,000 crore was committed in the exploration of oil and gas in 55 blocks. The 14 blocks being offered in OALP-II bid rounds cover an area of 29,333 sq km, and bids close on March 12 and another Rs 40,000 crore investment is expected. The government has held two auctions of discovered small fields and a similar number under OALP and the cumulative investment committed is Rs 1,20,000 crore, officials said.