The Silicon Review ^Asia

In the Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP) auction that was held on January 2^nd, 2020, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) has been offered with seven oilfields. No private players had participated in the auctions for these blocks. ONGC had bid for all the blocks and has eventually won all the blocks in the auction.

The blocks cumulatively spread across 18,510 sq km. ONGC was the only bidder for the six blocks offered in Madhya Pradesh and one which was in West Bengal, for the 2,111 sq km block in Rajasthan, ONGC competed with Oil India Ltd.

This is the first round of auction of OALP. The other auctions will be held in the month of February which will include the hydrocarbon exploration blocks. It is said that as many as 87 blocks will be auctioned with total blocks covering an area of 1.2 lakh sq km. “We have shifted our focus from revenue to production maximization and have adopted the path of continuous reform,” DharmendraPradhan, Union minister for petroleum and natural gas said.

The February Cabinet decisions also stated that the contractors bidding for blocks in Category II and III basins — which are unexplored and without many geoscientific data — will only pay royalty and statutory levies and do not have to share any revenue unless windfall gains are made. As per the norms, it is considered as the greatest win to ONGC as it has bagged all the major blocks which are required for oil and gas production.