Oilfield Auctions: Second Round To Begin Next Year

The second round of oil field auctions under the new Open Acreage Licensing Policy will begin by January next year.

The bidding for first round of auctions is expected to be completed by the first week of March and the government will award blocks by April 2018, a top official of the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons told BloombergQuint on the condition of anonymity.

The auctions are part of the new policy the government had announced in June last year, liberalising the oil and gas exploration regime by allowing companies to carve their own areas for hydrocarbon hunting. It opened up 2.8 million square kilometres of sedimentary basins for exploration and eventual production.

The government has received 55 expression of interest when the first window was opened from July-November 2017. Nearly 60 percent of the expressions of interest has been received from private players, the DGH official quoted above said. The window that is currently open will close by May 15 this year, he added.

Under the new policy, companies can bid round the year although their applications will be bunched together and evaluated only twice a year, at the end of two respective six-monthly windows.