Govt to auction 'major' oil, gas fields of ONGC, OIL

June 10, 2021 17:05

The government will auction unmonetised large oil and gas fields of state-owned ONGC and OIL to boost the country's hydrocarbon production, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday.

Speaking on the launch of the third round of auction of small discovered fields, he said companies cannot indefinitely sit on resources they may have discovered. These resources actually belong to the nation and they will be monetised by bidding them out to interested entities, he said.

As many as 32 oil and gas blocks with 75 discoveries have been offered in the Discovered Small Field (DSF) round-III. These small and marginal fields were discovered by state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) but they were not economically viable to be developed due to the fiscal regime and their small size.

Under DSF, liberal terms including pricing and marketing freedom are offered, making them viable. "There will be no DSF next time. Next time, it will be a 'major' round (auction of large fields)," Pradhan said. He said the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), the oil ministry's technical arm, has the "full mandate" to identify unmonetised major fields that could be offered for bidding.

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