10th round of oil and gas auctions could offer ‘no-go’ zones: oil ministry official | commodities

“We hope that the amendments will be approved in the winter session of Parliament (probably in November/December). The changes are expected to bring confidence to potential bidders for the planned OALP X exploration acreage in early 2025,” he said.

The areas that could be offered in the next round will include dates that until now were in the so-called “no-go” areas, where oil and gas exploration and production have been prohibited for strategic reasons.

Following an elaborate exercise to limit the no-go zones to only those that are critical to missions like missile testing in the Bay of Bengal, a large area has been cleared for exploration purposes. It will be offered in the OALP-X round, the official said.

The ninth auction round was announced on January 3, with February 29 as the initial deadline for submitting bids. This term has been extended several times, the current one ending on September 21.

The official said the opening of bids, evaluation and approval by the Cabinet is likely to take several months, and the signing of contracts for the OALP-IX blocks is likely only in early 2025. By then, changes to the ORDA are likely to be approved, and the timelines liberalized can also be extended to OALP-IX blocks.

“We have stated that we will try to consider all the contributions of the ORDA amendments in the OALP-IX round,” he said.

The OALP rounds are critical for India to increase domestic production of crude oil and natural gas. India currently imports more than 85% of its crude oil requirements and about half of its gas requirements.

Of the 28 blocks offered in OALP-IX, nine are onshore blocks, eight shallow water blocks and 11 ultra deep water blocks in eight sedimentary basins covering an area of ​​136,596.45 square kilometers. The General Directorate of Hydrocarbons (DHG) has “raised” five of these blocks, while the remaining 23 blocks are based on expressions of interest received from companies between April 2022 and March 2023.

In the last eight OALP rounds, 144 exploration and production blocks covering a total area of ​​242,055 sq km were awarded. In the last round, state-owned ONGC won seven blocks, while a private sector consortium comprising Reliance Industries and private sector BP, Oil India and Sun Petrochemicals got one block each.

The government introduced OALP in 2017 to attract oil and gas firms to develop India’s upstream sector. OALP guarantees marketing and pricing freedom with a revenue-sharing model, apart from offering low royalty rates.

First publication: September 19, 2024 | 17:53 IST