4 Cos Take Part In India’s Biggest Oil Bid

New Delhi: India’s biggest oil and gas bid round attracted four bidders that included state-owned ONGC and OIL and private sector Vedanta Ltd, with most blocks getting just two bids, according to Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH).The OALP-IX bid round, where 28 blocks or areas spread over 1.36 lakh square kilometre were offered for finding and producing oil and gas, for the first time saw Reliance Industries Ltd-bp plc combine bidding together with ONGC for one block in Gujarat offshore.

Reliance and its supermajor partner bp plc had bid in just two of the past eight oil and gas bid rounds since 2017. Reliance-bp combine had bid and won the two blocks they had bid for in the previous rounds and this is the first time they have teamed up with ONGC to bid for a shallow water block in the Gujarat-Saurashtra basin.

In the previous eighth round of Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP-VIII), state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) had not bid for the ultra deepsea Krishna Godavari basin block that Reliance-bp combine had sought.