The government has planned to launch the auction of these 60 oil and gas fields, that are being offered in the second round of bidding for Discovered Small Field (DSF) on August 9, said the regulatory body DGH.
DSF- II was supposed to be launched in mid-June, but it was deferred.
“Launch of Discovered Small Field (DSF) Bid Round-II on August 9, 2018, in New Delhi,” tweeted the upstream regulator.
The main fetures of DSF- II include a single license for both conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon, no prior technical experience as pre-qualification criterion, no upfront signature bonus—along with full pricing and marketing freedom.
“Royalty rates further reduced as compared to DSF-I,” it stated without elaborating any further, for now.
The fields are being offered in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Kutch & Cambay shallow waters, Mumbai offshore, Assam and Tripura, Mahanadi shallow water, Andhra Pradesh onland and KG offshore. The fields on offer hold an estimated total of 1.4 bn barrels of oil and equivalent gas.
The government has brought a new DSF policy in 2016, which offered “idle” small discovered fields of state- owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) in an auction on liberalised terms– that include marketing and pricing freedom, alongwith lower taxes.
The second round of DSF auctions had been approved in February by The Union Cabinet. It is under these, that the government is offering a total of 60 discovered small fields that with an estimated 194.65 mn tonnes of oil equivalent (Mmtoe). These discoveries have been clubbed into 26 contract areas, that have been spred over 8 sedimentary basins.
Out of the 60 –22 belong to ONGC, five to OIL, and 12 are relinquished from the New Exploration and Licensing Policy (NELP) blocks.