Oil block auctions likely by month-end

The government is planning to go ahead with the seventh round of auction of oil and gas exploration blocks under the New Exploration and Licensing Policy (NELP-VII) by the end of this month.

"The number of blocks to be offered and other issues will be finalised in the next three-four days," VK Sibal, director general in the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), said.

Sibal had recently told reporters that close to 80 blocks would be offered under NELP-VII, the largest number in any round so far. In NELP-VI, 55 blocks were auctioned.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the DGH, the nodal agency for the NELP auctions, have marked out new areas to be offered under NELP-VII. The government data show that acreages have been carved out in Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, shallow offshore West Bengal and deepwater Andaman.

The petroleum ministry is, however, yet to receive clearances from certain sections including the Ministry of Defence and the Forest Survey of India (FSI), Dehradun.

"In a meeting on February 27, the FSI told the DGH that certain restricted forest areas will have to be excluded while carving out blocks to be offered under NELP-VII," an official in the petroleum ministry said.

In separate letters to the FSI and the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the petroleum ministry has written that it is still awaiting the co-ordinates of the restricted area that needs to be deleted from the NELP-VII map.

The location of the restricted areas could not be determined.

A clearance from the Ministry of Defence is needed as many acreages lie near the international border. "The defence ministry's clearance also gains significance in NELP-VII in regard to the proposed blocks in Jammu and Kashmir," the government official added.

The petroleum ministry and the DGH were also asked by the Ministry of External Affairs to revise the co-ordinates of a few offshore blocks so that they did not fall outside the maritime zone of the country.

In NELP-VI, Bangladesh had raised objections saying that a couple of offshore blocks in the Bay of Bengal fell under its territory.