The Central government approved the awarding of 44 out of the 45 oil and gas blocks to the first ranked/sole bidders under the seventh round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-VII). Cairn Energy India -Cairn India's proposal for the MB-DWN-2005/8 block was the only proposal that was deferred.

ONGC and its partners bagged 20 out of the 44 blocks. Of the 20 blocks that ONGC and its partners bagged, three were for deep-water, five were for shallow-water and the balance 12 for on-land blocks. The second biggest winner was the BHP Billiton Petroleum International-GVK Infrastructure Oil & Gas consortium, which bagged seven deep-water blocks. Reliance Industries, in alliance with BP Exploration (Alpha) won a sole KG-DWN-2005/2. Others who were awarded blocks include Adani Welspun Exploration and Essar Exploration & Production-Nobel Energy International (one shallow-water block each), Indian Oil Corporation (two on-land), GeoGlobal Resources (Barbados) Inc (two on-land), Mercator Petroleum (two on-land) and Omkar Natural Resources (two on-land).

The total investment commitment for Phase - I of exploration for these blocks is about $1.5bn (approx Rs.7,500 crore). The bids for the blocks were floated in June 2008 for 57 blocks. In all, 181 bids were received from 95 companies for 45 blocks. The production sharing contract is likely to be signed within the period of one month.

For complete list of blocks awarded, visit ProjectsToday - Statistics

Also See:

Phase I of Nelp VII receives $1.49 billion(22-Aug-08)