Govt to auction exploration blocks: The hunt for oil is changing in India

Open acreage policy makes a start while DSF blocks move to development work

By May, when the present government enters the last year of its current tenure, the country’s oil and gas sector will be seeing new policies fructifying on the ground. 

Development activity under the Discovered Small Field (DSF) auction round would pick up and the first contracts under the Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP) are also expected to be signed by May. Both DSF and OALP are auctions conducted under the umbrella of the Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP) that, in 2015, put in place a more liberal framework for exploration and production. 

Officials said the first field development plan (FDP)