India has awarded a total of 32 new blocks via its second and third open acreage licensing rounds, with domestic operators dominating the list of winners, writes Nishant Ugal.

State-owned Oil India won 12 blocks, while fellow state-controlled player Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) won eight and private operator Vedanta Resources landed exploration rights for 10 blocks, according to the Indian Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH).

Private sector giant Reliance Industries along with UK supermajor BP won a single offshore block in the gas-rich Krishna Godavari basin off the nation’s east coast.

According to the DGH, Oil India won six out of the 14 blocks offered via the open acreage licensing policy-2 (OALP-2) round, while Vedanta won five.

ONGC, the Reliance-BP grouping and Indian Oil Corporation won one block each in the second OALP round.

In addition, ONGC won seven blocks in OALP-3, Oil India won six, while Vedanta was awarded the remaining five tracts to be granted.

Bids for the OALP-2 blocks and the 18 oil and gas blocks and five coalbed methane blocks offered in OALP-3 closed in May.

While the government received a decent response for its conventional oil and gas tracts, no bid was received for the CBM blocks.

The government is hoping that the OALP-2 and OALP-3 rounds will deliver exploration commitment spending that will come in at roughly 50% more than the $815 million realised from last year’s OALP-I.

India in 2017 switched to a new licensing regime that allows oil companies to carve out blocks of their choice, aimed at bringing about 2.8 million square kilometres of virgin acreage under exploration.

OALP-1, which was launched in January 2018 and completed in just nine months, resulted in 110 bids for the 55 blocks on offer.

Some players have already started exploration work and the ministry hopes first production will be achieved before 2025.

The OALP cycle is carried out twice a year and bids are later invited based on the expressions of interest submitted by interested companies.

The OALP acreage is offered under India’s Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy — also referred to as HELP — which utilises the revenue sharing model.

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India awards 32 blocks