ONGC Wins Seven Indian Oil, Gas Blocks
Indian state-owned ONGC has been awarded all the seven oil and gas blocks under Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP) Bid Round – IV, upstream regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) said January 2 in a statement.
The Indian government had launched OALP Bid Round – IV on August 27, 2019, and the round closed on October 31, 2019. The Bid Round-IV offered seven blocks, covering a total area of about 18,500 km2 and spread across three sedimentary basins.
Speaking on the occasion, Indian oil and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan highlighted the success of OALP bid rounds under the ambit of Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) introduced in the year 2016, primarily characterised by revenue sharing mechanism replacing the earlier New Exploration and Licensing Policy (NELP) which had production sharing mechanism.
The four OALP bid rounds have been conducted till date with a total of 94 blocks awarded covering an area of 1,36,790 km2 to E&P companies. The operators of these blocks have since then initiated petroleum exploration activities or are in final stages of obtaining petroleum exploration licenses (PELs), DGH said.