Government receives record number of bids in seventh round of NELP

摘要

The Government has received a total of 181 bids for exploration and production blocks on offer under the seventh round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-Vn)from 96 oil and gas companies.This is the highest number of bids ever received under any of the NELP bid rounds,surpassing the previous record of 165 bids under NELP-VI.The number of companies which submitted bids in NELP-VII is also significantly higher than the previous best of 66 companies in the NELP-VI round.71 Indian companies put in bids while 21 foreign firms,of which nine,submitted bids.A total of 57 blocks were on offer under the round,but 12 blocks - seven deep water blocks,two shallow water blocks and three onland blocks - did not receive any bids.All 12 of these blocks were "recycled" acreages-in which previous exploratory efforts did not yield any hydrocarbon finds,following which they were relinquished to the government.26 out of the 45 blocks which were considered prospective attracted multiple bids,while 19 blocks received a single bid.