India's ONGC wins 15 blocks in upstream oil, gas bid

Indian state-controlled upstream firm ONGC has won 15 of the 28 blocks offered for bidding in the ninth round under the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy's (HELP's) Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP).

Three of these were with ONGC's joint venture with state-run Oil India, while another was in a consortium with BP and private-sector refiner Reliance Industries (RIL).

This is the first time BP, RIL and ONGC have partnered and won a shallow-water block in the Saurashtra basin. ONGC has a 40pc stake in the consortium, with RIL and BP having 30pc each, a trading source said. RIL-BP had jointly won an ultra-deepwater block in the Krishna Godavari basin in the eighth round.

Private-sector Vedanta, which had bid for all 28 oil and gas blocks, won seven blocks.

Oil India won six blocks on its own and three in collaboration with ONGC.

Private-sector firm Sun Petrochemicals, which had bid for seven blocks in this ninth round, did not secure any blocks.

Interest from the private sector was relatively higher in this bidding round, but it remains mostly dominated by state-controlled firms. Foreign participation in the Indian exploration sector remains low.

The ninth round saw 28 blocks auctioned(https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2524414) across an area of 136,596.45 km². India has awarded 144 exploration and production blocks comprising a total area of 242,055 km² in eight previous rounds.

India in March passed the Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Amendment Bill 2024, which aims to simplify regulations, attract investment, and enhance exploration and production capabilities. It also allows granting oil leases on stable terms, along with sharing of production facilities and infrastructure.

It also scrapped the windfall tax on domestic crude oil production in December 2024.

The ministry said it is working on new frameworks to address challenges related to the upstream sector.

India imports around 89pc of its crude requirements, despite efforts to reduce its dependency on imports. Crude imports in January-February rose by over 1pc on the year to 5.01mn b/d, oil ministry data show. During the same period, its total crude production fell by over 1pc from a year earlier to 539,000 b/d.

By Roshni Devi