New Delhi, 9 November: The Government has extended the deadline for submitting bids for deepwater and ultra-deepwater oil and gas exploration blocks under its 10th and 11th Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) rounds to December 10.
The latest extension gives prospective investors nearly a month more to assess the offshore acreage on offer amid efforts to attract investment into India’s technically challenging deepwater exploration sector.
The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, has revised the bidding deadline for deepwater and ultra-deepwater blocks in OALP-X and OALP-XI to December 10.
While the government did not specify the reason for the extension, multiple media reports suggested that it could be linked to the government’s Rs 84,084-crore Samudra Manthan National Offshore Exploration Scheme, whose operating guidelines were released on October 22.
The scheme provides government support of up to 50 per cent of eligible deepwater exploration drilling costs, subject to a ceiling of Rs 675 crore per well.
The extension would give companies more time to evaluate the financial support framework and the economics of the blocks.
OALP-X was launched in 2025 with 25 blocks covering around 1.83 lakh sq km across 13 sedimentary basins.
The round includes six onshore, six shallow-water, one deepwater and 12 ultra-deepwater blocks.
Of the total acreage, 19 blocks are offshore, including 13 deepwater and ultra-deepwater blocks covering about 1.24 lakh sq km.
