New Delhi, March 30 India is likely to offer 21 blocks for the prospecting of oil and natural gas in the next bidding round under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP), according to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH).
The DGH, on its website, has listed the 21 blocks, consisting of 12 onshore areas, four shallow water blocks, one deepsea block, and four ultra-deep sea blocks, that will be offered in the 11th round of OALP (OALP-XI).
The area to be offered for bidding is approximately 80,235 square kilometers.
"Dates for the start and closing of bids will be announced soon," said the DGH.
The DGH has also unveiled the blocks and bidding parameters for the OALP-XI round, even though bids for the previous OALP-X round are yet to be received.
According to the DGH, bidders offering the highest revenue share, along with the most comprehensive work program, would be awarded the 14 blocks in Category-I sedimentary basins on offer in OALP-XI.
For the second, Category-II & III blocks, bidders quoting the highest work program of conducting seismic surveys and drilling wells will be awarded the blocks.
Category-I sedimentary basin refers to one with proven commercial production of oil and gas. Category-II refers to those with confirmed hydrocarbon accumulation but not yet developed for commercial production, while Category-III refers to those considered geologically prospective but with no commercial discoveries to date.
The OALP-X round, launched in February 2025 during the India Energy Week (IEW) 2025 in New Delhi, was originally scheduled to close at the end of July that year. In late July, the deadline was extended to October 31 and again to December 31, 2025. The deadline was then extended to February 18, 2026, and is now due on May 29.
OALP-X is the largest oil and gas acreage offering ever, with 25 blocks on offer covering a total area of approximately 191,986 sq km. According to the DGH, the acreage on offer comprises six onshore blocks, six shallow-water tracts, one deepwater block, and 12 located in ultra-deepwater across 13 sedimentary basins.
The round offers the largest area so far for the exploration and production of crude oil, which is refined into fuels like petrol and diesel, and natural gas, which is used to generate power, produce urea, and fuel automobiles and household kitchens.
In the previous nine rounds, an area of 3.78 lakh sq km was offered.
The previous bid round, OALP-IX, was the largest before OALP-X. The OALP-IX bid round featured 28 blocks or areas spread over 1.36 lakh sq km, offered for finding and producing oil and gas.
OALP bid rounds were introduced after an open acreage policy was implemented in 2016, which moved away from the previous practice of the government identifying and bidding out blocks, to one where explorers were allowed the freedom to identify any area outside of those already held by other companies, for prospecting of oil and gas.
Key features of this policy, called the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP), include reduced royalty rates, concessional royalty rates for early commercial production, no oil cess, exploration rights on all retained areas over the full contract life, and marketing and pricing freedom.
OALP-IX in September 2024 attracted four bidders, including state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL), and private sector Vedanta Ltd, with most blocks receiving just two bids, according to the DGH.
It is also the first time that Reliance Industries Ltd-BP Plc have bid together with ONGC for one block in the Gujarat offshore.
ONGC won 11 blocks on its own, along with another three in partnership with OIL. It also won the show water block in the Gujarat-Saurashtra basin that it had bid with Reliance-BP.
Mining billionaire Anil Agarwal's Vedanta, which had bid for all 28 blocks on offer, won seven blocks while OIL walked away with the remaining six.
