Bid due date for second round of OALP extended

The government has extended the bid due date for the second round of auctions of 14 oil and gas blocks under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) from April 10, 2019 to May 15, 2019. Further, OALP-2 and OALP-3 auctions will now run concurrently. OALP-2 comprises auction of 14 oil and gas blocks spread over an area of 30,000 square km that are expected to attract an investment of Rs 400 billion. Bids for these were invited in January 2019. OALP-3 comprises auction of 23 blocks (of which five are coal bed methane blocks) located in 12 sedimentary basins over a total area of 31,000 square km and are expected to entail an investment of Rs 490 billion. Bids for these were invited in February 2019. In a separate development, the renewed oil and gas exploration licensing policy will be implemented from the fourth OALP bid round, which is expected to commence from end June or July 2019.