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ARTICLE · 31 JANUARY 2018

Open Acreage Licensing Policy

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On 19 January 2018, the Notice Inviting Offer for exploration and development of 55 oil & gas blocks in India under the Hydrocarbon Exploration & Licensing Policy was issued by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas.

IndiaEnergy and Natural Resources
Dibyanshu
Dibyanshu
Prateek Bhandari
Prateek Bhandari
Shikha Rastogi
Shikha Rastogi
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Introduction

On 19 January 2018, the Notice Inviting Offer (NIO) for exploration and development of 55 oil & gas blocks in India under the Hydrocarbon Exploration & Licensing Policy (HELP) was issued by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPNG). Pursuant to the NIO, 46 onland blocks, 8 shallow water blocks and 1 deep water block are on offer.

The NIO was released as a part of the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) Bid Round‑I. This will be the first bid round under the new HELP regime, which has replaced the earlier New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) bidding rounds for the oil & gas blocks. Earlier, the MoPNG had launched National Data Repository (NDR) on 28 July 2017 and had notified the modalities for operationalisation of the OALP on 30 June 2017.

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