Production from blocks awarded in first round auctions expected in a week

Third round of discovered small field auctions begins

Production from blocks awarded in the first round of Discovered Small Field (DSF) auctions is going to start in a week according to Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. He said this while speaking at an event to mark the launch of the third round of DSF auction, but did not identify the block or the operator that was awarded the block.

Under DSF bid round-III, 32 Contract Areas comprising 75 discoveries are on offer. These exploratory fields spread over 9 sedimentary basins cover an acreage of about 13,685 square kilometres and have a potential of approximately 232 million tonnes, an official presentation said.

This is the largest number of discoveries on offer in any of the DSF rounds till now.

There are 19 onshore, 54 shallow water and 2 deepwater discoveries on offer. In the first DSF round, the Centre had offered 46 contract areas (awarded 30) spread across 67 fields. There were 25 contract areas (awarded 24) covering 59 fields in the second round.

The presentation said that 29 field development plans have been submitted and another 9 are in process.