The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), India’s upstream regulator, said earlier this week that India will offer 26 blocks or areas for finding and producing oil and gas in a mega offshore bid round.
At the same time, India is also offering 16 areas for prospecting for coal-bed methane in a separate bidding round.
“Government announces the offer of 26 blocks covering an area of approximately 2.23 lakh square kilometers for exploration and development through international competitive bidding,” DGH said, without giving timelines for bidding.
Out of the 26 blocks, 15 areas are in ultra-deepwater, 8 in shallow sea and 3 blocks are onland.
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The bid rounds are being held under the 2016 policy, called the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy, which was promulgated on March 30, 2016.
Since then, seven bid rounds of the Open Acreage Licensing Programme have been concluded and 134 exploration and production blocks awarded across 19 sedimentary basins.
The government clearly hopes that there will be reasonable private sector participation in this auction. In October, after meeting with representatives of the sector in Houston, Union petroleum minister Hardeep Puri said on Twitter, “There is an unprecedented interest in Indian exploration and production by global oil companies”.
In a previous exploration licensing round in 2021, India offered 21 blocks comprising 15 onshore blocks, 4 shallow water blocks and 2 ultra-deep-water blocks, over an area of 35,300 sq km.