The Central government has launched the third round of bids under the Open Acreage Licensing Programme-III (OALP). Union Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan launched the OALP-III bid round at the Petrotech 2019 conference on the outskirts of Delhi on 10 February 2019.
In this round, 23 blocks with an area of approximately 32,000 sq km are being offered for bidding. These include 19 on-land blocks including five coal bed methane (CBM) blocks, three shallow-water blocks and one deep water block.
The blocks are spread across 12 sedimentary basins. Of the blocks on offer, 18 are based on expressions of interest (EoIs) submitted by the bidders. Five blocks where CBM is the primary target have been carved out by the government suo motu with a view to augment exploration and production of the fuel in the country.
The bids will open from 11 February 2019 and continue till 10 April 2019. OALP-III will run concurrently with OALP-II, where 14 blocks covering an area of close to 30,000 sq km are on offer for bidding.