NEW DELHI, MAY 28: The government is likely to offer up to 40 oil exploration blocks for bidding under the second round of new exploration licensing policy (NELP) in October to various national and international oil companies.The petroleum ministry and the directorate general of hydrocarbons have already started the seismic survey and data collection to finalise the blocks being offered under the second round of NELP, ministry officials said.During the second round of bidding, the government would concentrate on putting most of the deep water exploration blocks for bids besides offering certain offshore and onshore oil blocks. During the first round of bids under NELP government had offered 48 blocks out of which only 27 blocks were bid by various National and international oil companies.The government had recently signed production sharing contracts for 22 oil blocks while the contracts for three more blocks are yet to be signed. Bids for two blocks were treated as non-responsive. Officials said that the ministry was also contemplating to offer the remaining 21 blocks in the second round by adding more data collection and doing more seismic surveys.Though the exact split up of the oil blocks to be offered under the second round of NELP is yet to be finalised the officials pointed out that petroleum ministry was planning to focus on deep water blocks.The petroleum ministry is also working out a time-frame on offering the coal bed methane blocks for private sector exploration, the officials said adding the directorate general of hydrocarbons had already identified certain blocks in the western regions.The government under the first round of NELP is planning to attract investments of over Rs 8,000 crore in various phases out of which in the first phase alone investments to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore is envisaged.Out of the 22 blocks signed under NELP, seven blocks are for deep water exploration, 14 for shallow waters and one for onland block. Russian oil company Gazprom has sought more time for signing the production sharing contract with the government for the recently awarded shallow water offshore block besides asking for more sops under the first round of NELP.
