10th round of OALP bidding for oil and gas assets likely in August

The Centre is planning to bring 560,000 sqkm under oil exploration by the end of 2024

The 10th round of bidding for oil and gas assets under the Centre’s Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) is expected to commence next month, petroleum and natural gas ministry officials said.

OALP-X may be one of the biggest so far in terms of area covered and the number of blocks on offer, and is expected to double the area under exploration.

The winning bids for OALP-IX, the final deadline for which had been extended to May, will also be concurrently announced, they said. “The government wants to expand the area under exploration fast. After the OALP-IX and X bid rounds are successfully completed, about 560,000 sq km area is expected to come under exploration by the end of the year,” an official said.

India has an estimated sedimentary area of 3.36 million sq km comprising 26 sedimentary basins, of which 1.63 million sq km area is on land, 410,000 sq km is in the shallow offshore area up to 400 metres from the coast, and 1.32 million sq km in the deepwater area beyond 400 metres. Currently, an estimated 10 per cent of the sedimentary basins are under exploration.

The ninth round comprised 28 blocks with an area of approximately 136,000 sq km. This includes 23 blocks based on expressions of interest (EoIs) received from companies between April 2022 and March 2023 and five blocks carved out by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons.

The 28 blocks under the round are spread across eight sedimentary basins and include nine onland blocks, eight shallow water blocks, and 11 ultra-deep-water blocks. To date, 134 exploration and production blocks comprising an area of 207,000 sq km across 19 sedimentary basins have been awarded by the government.

It has been difficult to get foreign players to participate till now. OALP-VIII ran for a year till July 5, 2023. First opened on July 7, 2022, the round offering 10 blocks saw the deadline for submission of bids extended more than four times. While officials have blamed interested bidders for requesting the extensions, industry sources said the government was hoping to attract more foreign players.