India launches bid round

NEW DELHI, February 11, 2019 – India’s oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan opened the third Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP III) bid round at the Petrotech 2019 conference on Sunday.

The bid round includes 23 blocks covering 32,000 square kilometres, with 18 blocks based on expressions of interest from companies and five coal bed methane blocks. Under the expression of interest system companies are allowed to define their blocks, which the government then auctions.

The oil ministry expects investment in exploration following a successful bid round to be USD 600 million-700 million.

OALP III follows two previous rounds. OALP II was launched in January 2019 and bids are due by March 12. OALP I was launched in January 2018 and drew 110 bids for 55 blocks, with winners announced in October. OALP IV and OALP V are expected later this year.

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