New Delhi, Nov 15 (PTI) State-owned ONGC and Vedanta Ltdtoday emerged as the biggest bidders for oil and gas blocks,putting in 41 out of 56 bids received in India's maidenauction under open acreage licensing regime.
Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) put in expression ofinterest for 41 areas while Vedanta's oil unit, Cairn Indiasought rights over 15 areas, sources privy to the developmentsaid.
Hindustan Oil Exploration Co (HOEC) bid for one area in around that was shunned by biggies like Reliance Industries.
India in July opened 2.8 million sq km of sedimentarybasins for oil and gas exploration in a bid to raise domesticproduction and cut excessive dependence on imports.
The Open Acreage Licensing (OAL) allows companies toselect blocks or areas after studying seismic data to exploreand produce oil and gas. The first round of bidding closestoday.
In all, 56 expressions of interest or EoIs have beenreceived so far, source said. Oil India Ltd (OIL) is the othermain bidder while the rest are smaller companies.
BP plc team visited data room but has not put in any bidsso far, they said.
OAL replaces the old system of government carving outareas and bidding them out. OAL allows investors to carve outtheir own areas and put in an EoI. Once an EoI is received foran area, it is put on competitive bidding and any companyoffering the government maximum share of oil and gas isawarded the block.
The last date for submission of EoI in the first cycle ofbidding under OAL is today and winners would be announced byJanuary 1.
OAL is being offered under the Hydrocarbon Explorationand Licensing Policy (HELP) that provides revenue sharingmodel for bidding for oil and gas blocks. It promisesmarketing and pricing freedom for oil and gas produced.
Under OAL, companies can carve out any area that iscurrently not under any licensee, and evince interest fordoing exploration and production.
Once an area is selected, the government will put it upfor bidding and any firm offering the maximum share of oil orgas produced from the area would be awarded the block.
Till now, the government has been selecting anddemarcating areas it feels can be offered for bidding in anexploration licensing round.
So far 256 blocks had been offered for exploration andproduction since 2000. The last bid round happened in 2010. Ofthese, 254 blocks were awarded. But as many as 156 havealready been relinquished due to poor prospectivity. PTI ANZSA.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.