Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Reliance Industries today struck it rich in the third round of bidding under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-III).
Of the 23 blocks awarded by the government, 13 went to ONGC and 9 to the Reliance-led consortium with Hardy Exploration and Production. The nine blocks included two in shallow waters and seven in deep waters.
Reliance had recently struck substantial gas in one of the deep water blocks in the Krishna-Godavari basin awarded to it in the first round of the exploration policy.
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The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs cleared the award of the blocks today. As per its decision, ONGC on its own has been awarded five onshore blocks, three shallow water blocks and one deep water block.
ONGC-Indian Oil consortium has been awarded one onshore block, and ONGC-Oil India Limited consortium has been given two onshore blocks and one shallow water block.
The Reliance consortium has bagged two shallow water blocks and seven deep water blocks.
It has got both the shallow water blocks and one deep water block in the Krishna-Godavari Basin.
One offshore block in Krishna-Godavari basin has been awarded to the consortium of Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Limited, Geo-Global India Resources and Jubilant Enpro Limited.
The government had received 45 bids for the 23 blocks by August 28, the day the bids closed. For the first time, the award of the blocks was finalised in just about two months.
The government had taken seven months to finalise the award in the first round, and three months in the second round.
The government had signed 47 contracts in the first two rounds. With the award of 23 more blocks in the third round, the area of about 760,000 square km covered under the policy constitutes about 72 per cent of the area under exploration in the country.
The estimated investment in the 23 blocks awarded in the third round is about $415 million (Rs 2,035 crore) in the first phase of exploration, and about $1.05 billion (Rs 5,150 crore) in all the three phases.
While private players had bagged most of the blocks in the first round, in the subsequent rounds, state-run firms cornered a large chunk of the blocks.
"This shows that our public sector undertakings (PSUs) have been quick to learn and adapt to the new competitive scenario. I expect this healthy competition between PSUs and the private players will result in a vibrant and progressive exploration and production sector in the country," Petroleum Minister Ram Naik said.