Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Veerappa Moily, on Tuesday said that the tenth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) would be announced by January 15, 2014.
Addressing the media, Moily said that under this round, 86 hydrocarbon blocks would be up for bidding, out of which 54 blocks have received clearances from various agencies. Rest of the blocks will get the approval by the time it comes up for bidding in January.
NELP was formulated in 1997 as a common platform for public and private sector companies to bid for the blocks. However, a number of blocks in the past were stuck due to lack of clearances from Defence and Environmental ministries.