India offers 11 oil and gas blocks in 5th bid round

New Delhi: India on Wednesday announced the opening of the fifth oil and gas block bid round, offering 11 areas for bidding on revamped fiscal terms. So far, the government has awarded 94 blocks under the Hydrocarbon Exploration & Licensing Policy (HELP) regime in a short time span of two and a half years.

These 94 blocks cover an exploratory area of about 1,36,800 square kilometers over 16 Indian Sedimentary Basins, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) said in a statement.

"In continuation of its aggressive acceleration of exploration and production activities and adhering to the prescribed timelines, the Government has now launched the Bid Round-V for International Competitive Bidding," it said. "In this bid round 11 blocks, with an area of approximately 19,800 sq km are on offer for bidding to the investor community."

The last bid round saw just eight bids coming in for seven blocks on offer. State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) walked away with all the seven oil and gas blocks on offer.