Govt allots 52 oil and gas blocks under NELP-VI

New Delhi, Feb 8 (UNI) The Government today alloted 52 oil and gas exporation blocks to successful bidders who submitted their bids for various schemes under the sixth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-VI).

Announcing the government's decision, Petroleum and Natural Gas Secretary M S Srinivasan told newsmen that of the total, 24 blocks were alloted to the public-sector Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), seven to Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), six to Oil India Ltd (OIL) and three blocks each to Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) and Russia's Naftogaz.

Essar Oil and Australia's Santos were allotted two blocks each while Britain's Cairn Energy was awarded one block. Other players like Focus, Petrogas, Prize Petroleum and Canada-based Geoglobal also bagged one block each.

Mr Srinivasan said the awarded blocks include 21 deepwater blocks where ONGC secured 12, RIL seven and Santos two. Of the six shallow offshore blocks, ONGC bagged two while Focus, GSPC, Petrogas and Cairn Energy got one block each.

The secretary said there were 25 inland oil blocks, of which ONGC secured 10, OIL six and Naftogaz three. Two blocks each were awarded to Essar Oil and GSPC while Prize Petroleum and Geoglobal bagged one block each.

UNI