Public sector upstream company ONGC has bagged four out of 16 blocks awarded under the ninth round oil and gas acreages auction as an operator.
Under the ninth bid round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-IX), the Government had received bids for 33 blocks out of 34 offered. Though private sector players like Reliance Industries and Cairn India had bid for the ninth round, they drew a blank.
The other winners include Oil India Ltd and GAIL (India) as well as new and small players like Sankalp Oil and Natural Resources, Deep Energy LLC, Focus Energy, Pratibha Oil and Natural Gas Pvt Ltd, and Pan India Consultants.
Blocks in the West Coast were the most sought after in the ninth round. The Government is expecting investments close to $600 million from the ninth round, Mr S.K. Srivastava, Director-General of Hydrocarbons, said here on Wednesday after the production sharing contract signing function.
The Petroleum Secretary, Mr G.C. Chaturvedi, said approvals for six blocks are pending, and will be considered for award separately. He said that 10 blocks — seven deepwater and three shallow water — have not been awarded as the bids for these were rejected due to low percentage of profit petroleum offered to the Government.
Further, one block CB-ONN-2010/7 has not been awarded as the single bid received for this block has been rejected due to inadequate net worth of the bidder.
Of the 16 blocks awarded, production sharing contracts were signed for only 13, as winners of three Cambay Basin blocks — Sankalp Oil & Natural Resources Ltd — were not present.
Mr S. Jaipal Reddy, Petroleum Minister, hoped to complete the process for the pending blocks at the earliest. He said his Ministry will start work on the tenth round of auctions. The Government was having a close look at the NELP provisions making it more transparent, automatic and less intrusive, he said.
On what is holding back the Ministry from moving towards the Open Acreage Licensing System (OALP) from the current NELP, Mr Reddy said that OALP needs National Data Repository (NDR). The work on NDR has got delayed due to certain contractual issues, he said adding “we are attending to it.”
Asked whether the Ministry is trying to cut down the delays which the exploration companies face while getting approvals from different ministries, the Petroleum Secretary said, “Yes, we are trying to work on it.”