India to auction exploration blocks

HOUSTON, March 9, 2017 – India is putting exploration blocks up for bid in the second half of 2017, the country’s director general of hydrocarbons, Atanu Chakraborty, said on Wednesday.

The open licensing round covers exploration acreage across the country, with data becoming available in July. Bids can be placed through November, but there is talk of a possible extension of the deadline to early December.

“We have very good quality data available for 600,000 square kilometres and sparse data for 2.1 million square kilometres,” Chakraborty said of the blocks, which are located both onshore and offshore.

The auction will be followed up by another round in January 2018, as part of an ongoing licensing process that will see bidding rounds every six or seven months.

Earlier in the week, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan unveiled India’s Hydrocarbons Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP).

The new framework stands out in that it will allow interested parties to delineate blocks based on the available data as opposed to the areas being defined by the government. Additionally, companies can express interest at any time – they will not have to sit tight for a licensing round to be scheduled.

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