Firms to submit bids for third round of discovered small fields on May 31

India is also set to see the curtains for yet another round of oil and gas auctions as companies are set to submit the bids for the third round of discovered small fields on May 31.  

These fields are spread over nine sedimentary basins covering over 13,000 square kilometers with in-place hydrocarbons estimated to be around 230 million metric tonne. 

Business Standard takes a look at the history these auctions and the investments so far in these rounds. Starting from the pre-New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) fields to the nine rounds of NELP, discovered small fields (DSF) and the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) rounds, at least 216 blocks are active now, that saw an investment of $45.18 billion.

Majority of the investments in OALP and DSF blocks are set to come up in the coming years. Based on the estimates, India’s reserves increased 41.872 billion tonnes of oil equivalent in 26 sedimentary basins, up from 28.09 BTOE in 15 sedimentary basins.