State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has won 18 out of the 21 areas offered for finding and producing oil and gas in the sixth bid round under Open Acreage Licensing Policy, according to the upstream regulator DGH.
Oil India Ltd (OIL) walked away with two blocks and Sun Petrochemicals Pvt Ltd got one block, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons said announcing the winners of the OALP-VI round.
The 21 blocks or areas offered for exploration and production of oil and gas in Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) Bid Round-VI attracted just 3 bidders at the close of bidding on October 6, 2021.
Of the 21 blocks on offer, 18 got a single bid and the remaining 3 blocks had two bidders. ONGC, India's largest oil producer, had bid for 19 blocks while OIL bid for two. ONGC was the sole bidder in 16 blocks and OIL was the only bidder in the two areas it sought for.
Sun Petrochemicals bid for three blocks, where it is locked in competition with ONGC. Vedanta Ltd and Reliance-BP combine, which had bid in previous rounds of OALP, did not bid in the current round.
The government has been hoping that opening up of more acreage for exploration will help boost India's oil and gas production, helping cut down the USD 119 billion oil import bill.
In 2016, it brought in an open acreage policy which moved away from the previous practice of government identifying and bidding out blocks to one where explorers were allowed the freedom to identify any area outside of the ones that are already with some company or other, for prospecting of oil and gas.
The areas identified are to be clubbed twice a year and offered for bidding. The firm identifying the area gets a 5-point advantage. But except for the first round, private sector participation has been scant.
Mining mogul Anil Agarwal's Vedanta Ltd walked away with 41 blocks out of the 55 blocks on offer in the very first round and got another 10 areas in two subsequent rounds.
