State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and mining billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Ltd are set to win nine oil and gas blocks each in the latest auction, while Reliance Industries and its British partner BP Plc is set to win KG basin gas block.
Sources said the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has completed the evaluation of the bids received for 32 oil and gas exploration blocks that were auctioned in the latest licensing round.
As per the bid evaluation, ONGC and Vedanta Ltd are top bidders in nine blocks each and state-owned Oil India Ltd (OIL) in 12 areas.
Reliance-BP combine outbid ONGC in one Krishna Godavari basin block in the Bay of Bengal.
The winners of the auction will be announced after the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sources added.
Bidding for 14 blocks on offer in the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) round-II and another 18 oil and gas blocks and 5 coal-bed methane (CBM) blocks on offer in OALP-III closed on May 15.
Reliance-BP had made their first bid in eight years when they sought an area that previously was held by ONGC, sources said.
When the government in July 2017 allowed companies to carve out blocks of their choice with a view to bring about 2.8 million sq km of unexplored area in the country under exploration, Reliance-BP sought the KG area containing the discoveries.
Under the new policy, areas sought by any company are put on auction with the initiator or the company that originally carved out the block, getting a 5 point advantage.
Sources said Reliance-BP managed to get the coveted KG block in the latest auction by a small margin that possibly came from the originator marks and a commitment to do a shale core exploration.
Reliance-BP had last jointly bid for a KG deep water block in the 8th bid round under previous licensing policy in 2008. They, however, gave up the block after not finding any commercially exploitable oil and gas reserves.
In the following year, Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance on its own bid for six blocks in the ninth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) but did not win any block.
Sources said at the close of bidding for the current round on May 15, ONGC had put in bids for 20 out of the 32 blocks on offer, while OIL made bids for 16 blocks.
Vedanta, which had walked away with 41 out of the 55 blocks offered in OALP-I last year, bid for 30 areas.
Indian Oil Corp (IOC), GAIL (India) and SunPetro bid for two blocks each, they said.
BP had more than a decade back entered the country buying 30 per cent stake in Reliance’s 21 oil and gas exploration blocks for $7.2 billion. All but a couple of blocks have since been relinquished.
NELP has since been replaced by Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP) under which OALP bids round have been held.
Under the new policy, called open acreage licensing policy, companies are allowed to put in an expression of interest or EoI for prospecting of oil and gas in any area that is presently not under any production or exploration licence.