ONGC wins 11 blocks in round 9 of national oil and gas asset auctions

Private company Cairn wins 7; BP wins offshore block in Saurashtra basin

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and its partners won the most number of blocks — 15 — in the ninth round of the national oil and gas asset auctions.

 

Under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) Round-IX, ONGC won 11 blocks on its own and the four others with partners, the government announced on Tuesday. 

 

Private sector exploration and production company Cairn, which had bid for all 28 blocks on offer, won seven blocks.

 

Meanwhile, UK-based global energy major BP announced its foray into exploration and production as a bidder for oil and gas assets. 

 

“We are happy to confirm that we have signed a contract for a new exploration licence under the consortium of ONGC (40 per cent), RIL (Reliance Industries) (30 per cent), and BP (30 per cent) for block GS-OSHP-2022/2 (Saurashtra basin) in the OALP-IX bidding round,” a BP spokesperson said.

 

Earlier this year, BP PLC won a bid to operate and boost production from ONGC’s flagship Mumbai High field, which has been witnessing a steady decline in output.

 

OALP Round-IX covered 136,596 square kilometres (sq km) across 28 blocks. The distribution of these blocks included on-land (13, 875.19 sq km), shallow waters (26, 648.14 sq km), and ultra-deep waters (96,073.12 sq km).

 

The government also released an online portal for stakeholders to discuss the Draft Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules, 2025. 

 

These rules operationalise new substantive provisions introduced by the Oilfields Regulation & Development Act, including renewal, extension and unitisation of leases, sharing of production and processing facilities, dispute resolution, site restoration, sound management of mineral oils, and decarbonisation.

 

Speaking on the occasion, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that the government was open to accommodation and in the next two decades, 25 per cent of the world’s incremental energy demand growth will come from India. The minister stressed that 76 per cent of the total area under exploration currently was opened up after 2014.