Vedanta bags 41 oil blocks in open acreage auction

Mining mogul Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta has bagged 41 out of 55 oil and gas exploration blocks offered in India's maiden open acreage auction, upstream regulator DGH said on Tuesday.

State-owned Oil India won nine blocks, while Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) managed to win just two.

GAIL, upstream arm of Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Oil Exploration Co (HOEC) received one block each, DGH said giving out list of winners of Open Acreage licensing Policy (OALP) round-1.

"We will work hard to make the best of this opportunity. We are an energy deficient country and policies like OALP will help reduce country's import dependence for oil from around 80 per cent now to 67 per cent by 2022, in line with (the) PM's vision.

Rs 97.5-cr penalty

Meanwhile, the Goa's directorate of mines and geology has issued a Rs 97.48-crore demand notice to Vedanta towards non-payment of royalty for the financial years 2011 to 2013. The company is alleged to have illegally mined iron ore to the tune of 20,76,746 tonne during this period, according to the directorate of mines and geology.

The notice, issued on Tuesday by the DMG, Prasanna Acharya, directs Vedanta to pay the principal royalty amount of Rs 54.48 crore within 14 days and the interest of Rs 43.03 crore in the next seven days.