Govt to auction 'major' oil, gas fields of ONGC, OIL: Pradhan

New Delhi: The government will auction unmonetised large oil and gas fields of state-owned ONGC and OIL to boost the country's hydrocarbon production, Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday.

Speaking on the launch of the third round of auction of small discovered fields, he said companies cannot indefinitely sit on resources they may have discovered.

These resources actually belong to the nation and they will be monetised by bidding them out to interested entities, he said. As many as 32 oil and gas blocks with 75 discoveries have been offered in the Discovered Small Field (DSF) round-III. These small and marginal fields were discovered by state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) but they were not economically viable to be developed due to the fiscal regime and their small size. Under DSF, liberal terms, including pricing and marketing freedom are offered, making them viable.

"There will be no DSF next time. Next time, it will be a 'major' round (auction of large fields)," Pradhan said.

He said the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), the oil ministry's technical arm, has the "full mandate" to identify unmonetised major fields that could be offered for bidding.

"Resources don't belong to a company. They belong to the nation and the government. They cannot lie with a company indefinitely. If somebody cannot monetise them, we will have to bring a new regime," he said.

The statement comes weeks after his ministry said India's largest oil and gas producer ONGC to sell a stake in producing oil fields such as Ratna R-Series in western offshore to private firms and get foreign partners in KG basin gas fields.

On April 25, a seven-point action plan, 'ONGC Way Forward' was reported. It was drawn by the ministry that called for the firm to consider a sale of a stake in maturing fields such as Panna-Mukta and Ratna and R-Series in western offshore and onshore fields like Gandhar in Gujarat to private firms while divesting/privatising 'non-performing' marginal fields.

It wanted ONGC to bring in global players in gas-rich KG-DWN-98/2 block where output is slated to rise sharply next year, and the recently brought into production Ashokenagar block in West Bengal. Also, identified for the purpose is the Deendayal block in the KG basin which the firm had bought from Gujarat government company GSPC a couple of years back.

"This 'chalti ka naam gaddi' (something that is just barely working) attitude will now work. We have to take bold decisions," Pradhan said. "Idle, unmonetised resources, especially with state-owned companies, need to be monetised."

For a nation that imports 85 per cent of its oil needs, resources lying idle for a long time cannot be permitted, he said.