New Delhi: India has offered 8 oil and gas blocks, mostly in Assam, for bidding in the latest bid round with a view to bringing more area under exploration, leading to increase in domestic production and reduction of imports.

Eight blocks have been offered in the seventh bid round of Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP), with bids due on February 15, 2022, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) said.

The "8 blocks spread over 6 sedimentary basins, 5 States covering 15,766 square kilometers of area. Out of 8 blocks, 5 blocks are on land type, 2 blocks are shallow water-type and 1 block is ultra-deepwater type," DGH said in the notice inviting offers.

Three out of the five on land blocks are in Assam Arakan or Assam Shelf while one is in Rajasthan. One block in the Satpura basin has also been offered. Two shallow water blocks are in Cambay off the Gujarat coast while one ultra-deepwater block in the Cauvery basin is also on offer.

The last bid round, OALP-VI, attracted just three bidders, two of whom were state-owned explorers Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL). 21 blocks or areas were offered for exploration and production of oil and gas in the OALP Bid Round-VI, for which bidding closed on October 6. Besides ONGC and OIL, Sun Petrochemicals was the only other company to have a bid, according to the Summary of Bids posted by DGH.

Of the 21 blocks on offer, 18 got a single bid and the remaining 3 blocks had two bidders, ONGC, India's largest oil producer, was the sole bidder for 16 blocks.

The government has been hoping that opening up of main acreage for exploration will help boost India's oil and gas production, helping cut down the 590-billion oil import bill -

Source: PTI