New Delhi: To handhold and apprise the prospective investor community about the salient features of Hydrocarbon Exploration & Licensing Policy(HELP) framework and details about the ebidding process, Government successfully concluded a facilitation workshop in Ahmedabad yesterday after a similar event in Mumbai a few days back.
The workshop conducted by Director General, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) along with other senior Government officials witnessed over 150 participants from E&P companies, investors, entrepreneurs, academicians etc. Besides the requisite information about Open Acreage Licensing Programme(OALP) Bid Round I, the DGH officials shared information about the fields to be offered under Discovered Small Field – DSF Bid round II which is to be launched soon by the government. 60 discovered small fields having established In-place volumes of over1.4 Billion Barrels of Oil & Oil Equivalent Gas (O+OEG) in commercially producing basins are likely to be offered in DSF-II. As compared to DSF- I, the fields are larger in size with almost double, in-place volumes. DSF-I saw phenomenal response with 134 bids and resulted in entry of 13 new entrants (12 private and 1 foreign) in the Indian E&P sector.
Shri. Atanu Chakraborty,Director General of Hydrocarbonsset the context for the workshop by elaborating on the various investment opportunities available under the renewed policy framework in the E&P sector.Shri. Sanjay Kumar Jain, Director (Exploration), MoPNG, talked on the policy regime under HELP. There were detailed sessions on HELP, ebidding process for OALP, taxation framework applicable to the E&P sector and preview of DSF-II,andinterested participants deliberated at the specific facilitation kiosks later in the day.
Over the recent past yearsMoPNG has undertaken a slew of initiatives to achieve Prime Minister’s vision for Energy Security and Sufficiency, in continuation to which OALP Bid Round I under Hydrocarbon Exploration & Licensing Policy (HELP) was launched in January 2018 by Hon’ble Minister Shri. Dharmendra Pradhan. A total of 55 bidder selected blocks in promising basins with an area of 59,282 Sq. Kms have been put open for international competitive bidding. The strong response received in the form of Expression of Interest (EOI) stage of OALP Bid Round-I has reaffirmed the acceptance of the industry to HELP. This is the largest offering in the last decade.
Such facilitation workshops are also planned in Kolkata and Hyderabad to showcase the opportunities under OALP Bid Round-I and DSF-II.
