Oil Ministry launches sixth bid round of Open Acreage Licensing Programme

Centre expects minimum work commitment of $300-400 million immediately

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas launched the sixth round of bids under the Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP). An official statement said that 21 blocks, with an area of approximately 35,346 sq km are on offer to investors.

“The bidders would be able to submit their bids on an online e-bidding portal starting August 6, 2021 and the deadline for bid submission is October 6, 2021. Award of these blocks to winning bidders is expected by the end of November 2021,” the statement said.

In earlier rounds, the Oil Ministry had awarded 105 Blocks spanning an area of around 156,580 sq km, which attracted total committed investment of about $2.4 billion.

“It is expected that this Bid Round VI would generate immediate exploration work commitment of around $300-400 million,” the statement added. The 21 blocks under OALP Round-VI are spread across 11 Sedimentary Basins and include fifteen Onland blocks, four Shallow Water blocks and two Ultra Deep Water blocks. Category wise, there are 12 blocks in Category-I basins, 4 in Category II basins and 5 in category-III basins.

An area of 156,580 sq km has already been awarded under past bid rounds OALP Bid Rounds (I to V). This Bid Round-VI is expected to add further 35,346 sq km, taking the total area for exploration to 191,926 sq. km under the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) regime.

HELP regime adopts the Revenue Sharing Contract model, a deviation from the earlier Production Sharing Contract model.

It comes with reduced royalty rates, no Oil Cess, marketing and pricing freedom, round the year bidding, freedom to investors for carving out blocks of their interest, a single license to cover both conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon resources.

“Bid Round-IV onwards bidding rounds are being carried out under the further liberalised policy terms, which focused on production maximization with higher weightage to Committed Work Programme,” the statement said.