The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has launched the seventh bid round under the Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP). An official statement said eight blocks are being bid under the present round. These include five onland blocks (four in Category-I Basins and one in Category-III Basin), two shallow water blocks (both in Category-I Basin) and one ultra deep water block (Category-I Basin).

       “It is expected that OALP Round VII will generate an immediate exploration work commitment of around $300-400 million,” the statement said.

       Award of these blocks is likely to be completed by the end of March 2022. Successful award of Round-VII blocks would add further 15,766 square kilometre (sq km) of exploration acreage and cumulative acreage under OALP will be increased to 207,692 sq km, the statement added.

       Since 2016, five rounds of OALP have been concluded for 105 Exploration and Production (E&P) blocks. The award of 21 blocks under the sixth round of OALP is under progress. In all, the 126 blocks comprise about 191,926 sq km of area spread across 18 sedimentary basins.