OALP BID ROUND-II

About:

• India is 3^rd largest energy consumer in the world and likely to have one of the fastest growing energy demands of the world in the coming years.
  
  
• To meet this growing demand, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) has taken various initiatives to accelerate the Exploration and Production (E&P) activities in India.
  
  
• The Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) replacing the erstwhile New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) was approved in 2016. The licensing programme under HELP adopts the Revenue Sharing Model.
  
  
• The Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP) along with the National Data Repository (NDR) were launched in June 2017. OALP envisages six monthly periodic bidding rounds starting from July 1, 2017.
  • The first bidding round under OALP (Bid Round I) was launched in January 2018 and closed in May 2018 and 55 blocks covering 59,282 sq. km. area were awarded in October 2018.
    
    
  • In the second bidding round under OALP (Bid Round II), 14 E&P blocks, with an area of approximately 30,000 sq. km., are being offered for bidding to the investor community.
    
    
  • The Government is also in advanced stages of finalizing the OALP Bid Round III.
    
    
  
  
  
• With this successful roll out of the HELP/OALP regimes, together with the National Data Repository (NDR), the Government has achieved a massive addition to the exploration acreage of India.