The Central government has inked revenue-sharing contracts for 32 hydrocarbon blocks offered under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) Rounds-II and-III. The government had launched OALP Bid Rounds-II and -III on 7 January 2019 and 10 February 2019 respectively.

While Bid Round-II offered 14 Blocks (covering total area of approx 30,000 sq km), Bid Round-III offered 23 blocks including five CBM blocks (covering total area of approx 32,000 sq km).

The total area awarded in the 32 blocks is 58,998 sq km (on land 31,551 sq km; offshore 27,447 sq km). Oil India (OIL) has won 12 blocks under the two rounds, followed by Vedanta winning 10, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) with eight and the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) with one.

Reliance Industries, along with its foreign partner BP, has also got a hydrocarbon field after a gap of 11 years, as it last won in 2008 under the New Exploration Licensing Policy.

There were eight onland, five shallow-water and one ultra-deepwater blocks under auction for OALP-II, a total of 14. Under OALP-III, out of the 23 blocks, 19 are on land (including five coal-bed methane), three in shallow water and one in deep water. No bids were received for five blocks under Round-III. Bids came in for 32 blocks out of the 37, but none for the coal-bed methane blocks which were carved out by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons and put up for auction.