Road Show for the Discovered Small Fields Bid Round 2016 Launched in Mumbai

by Suman Gupta

Mumbai | June 6, 2016: Union Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas, Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan today launched the first Road Show for the Discovered Small Fields Bid Round 2016, with a promise of a transparent regime and greater ease of doing business. Speaking at a well attended event in Mumbai, Mr. Pradhan said the current Discovered Small Fields Bid Round 2016, as also the recently announced Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy(HELP), were both significant improvements over the previous NELP regime. "The spirit behind the journey from NELP to HELP is to create administrative and fiscal systems which are a lot simpler and transparent" he added.

As part of the Discovered Small Field Bid Round 2016, 67 different small fields across 9 sedimentary basins are being offered through auction.  These blocks were originally discovered by ONGC and Oil India Ltd, but could not be developed due to various reasons.  The 67 blocks on offer are present in 46 contract areas with 625 million barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas of in-place reserves spread over 1,500 square kms in on-land, shallow water and deepwater areas.

The Petroleum Minister further said the bid round aims to boost the oil and gas production in the country and is in line with Prime Minister Modi's mission of reducing India’s energy import dependence by 2022. "We realised that without addressing the fundamental challenges facing our domestic E&P industry, we won’t be able to ramp up the domestic oil and gas production volumes. We are also convinced that a simplified and transparent administrative and regulatory setup has a huge role in fast-tracking developmental activities in hydrocarbon sector" Mr. Pradhan added.

India meets 70 per cent of its oil and gas consumption through imports. Out of its total demand or 226 million tons, only 70 million tons is produced domestically. This is evident from the fact that out of the total oil and gas consumption of 226 Million Metric Tonnes, only 70 Million Metric Tonnes is produced domestically. 

"Given India’s nearly 78% dependence on energy imports, I strongly believe that all quantities of hydrocarbon - big or small - are crucial for the country. And therefore, we feel that this new bid round is a timely step in the right direction" Mr. Pradhan said.

Some of the key features of the new  policy include no upfront signature bonus, freedom in pricing, no oil cess, custom duty exemption and graded royalty rates. Investors will access information dockets through the e-bidding gateway. Also, Physical Data Centers with Interpretation Facility would be set up in the DGH office and other international locations where prospective bidders can access the data.

Post the completion of the event, the Minister and his delegation of senior dignitaries comprising Secretary. Petroleum & Natural Gas, Mr. K D Tripathi, Additional Secretary, Mr. A P Sawhney and DG Hydrocarbons Mr. Atanu Chakraborty  interacted with some of India’s prominent business leaders, start-up firms looking for venturing in to the Oil and Gas sector among others to scout for new business associations for the project and invited them to come and invest in the fields.

The Bidding process will start on 15^th July 2016 and will end on 31^st October 2016.  After Mumbai, domestic road shows will be held in Bangalore and Guwahati while  international road shows will be conducted in London, Houston, Calgary (Canada), Dubai, Singapore and Perth.