CCEA likely to award 31 oil and gas blocks soon

January 2017

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) is likely to award around 31 oil and gas blocks out of 46 contract areas put on offer, to the selected bidders in the discovered small and marginal field auction, by end-January 2017. Earlier, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) had indicated that the fields were likely to be allotted by end-December 2016. The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, which conducted the bidding, has already forwarded the list of selected bidders to the MoPNG. A total of 42 companies took part in the current round of auctions for small and marginal fields, of which 37 were private companies. The 46 contract areas on offer received a total of 134 e-bids.