The Hindu Business Line : Road shows for NELP-VI by Feb-end

According to sources, the Ministry has already obtained environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment for the blocks being offered under NELP-VI.

Currently, the schedule for the NELP-VI is being fine-tuned, the sources told Business Line. The Petroleum Ministry, which was initially looking at about 30-35 blocks, is now ready with close to 55 blocks for the sixth round.

Out of the large chunk of blocks to be offered under NELP-VI, five could be in the north-eastern part of the country. There are 24 blocks in deep water, six shallow offshore, and 25 on-land blocks being offered under NELP-VI. Indications are that the majority of these blocks could be in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) Basin.

As regards the changes being introduced under NELP, sources said there would be a change in the criteria of the blocks and the block sizes have also been reduced.

The Petroleum Ministry is also fine-tuning the NELP to attract more exploration and production companies including rationalising the exploration blocks so that there is not much of a difference in their size while tapping the unexplored potential of the country. The Government is almost ready with the data docket for the blocks.

Open acreage policy

Simultaneous with NELP VI, the Government is also pursuing the open acreage policy. While under NELP, the Government announces certain blocks that are open for bidding for a specific period, under the open acreage policy, blocks would be available throughout the year and companies can visit data room anytime and if they find any block attractive, they could bid for it.

In order to have a proper system for open acreage policy, the Government is also working towards creating a national data repository, where data from all the already awarded (explored and producing) and the new ones to be awarded would be stored for public viewing.

The NELP system and open acreage system would co-exist for some time, the sources added. Incidentally, data worth Rs 21 crore has already been sold. Some of the companies, which are understood to have sourced the data, include British Gas, Conoco Philip and Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation .

The Government had offered 20 exploration blocks to consortia, private companies or joint ventures (both domestic and foreign), national oil companies in the fifth round of NELP. Under NELP, 108 exploration blocks have been awarded through international competitive bidding process.