Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri launched the Discovered Small Field (DSF) Bid Round-III. A number of investors from India and abroad participated in the event which was held in a hybrid mode. Under the bid round, 75 discoveries across 32 Contract areas in 11 basins are being offered. Estimated Hydrocarbon in place of approximately 232 MMTOE of oil and oil equivalent gas are on offer.
Speaking on the occasion, Hardeep Singh Puri said that Energy is very centric to India’s trajectory of growth. In his keynote address at the “Investors’ Meet: Opportunities under DSF and HELP”, he said that India has a huge appetite for energy and is expected to be the primary driver of global energy demand in the coming decades, as incomes and per capita energy consumption rises.
Puri said that India is waiting to take-off. India’s per capita consumption, which is one-third of global energy, is poised to grow, as the urbanization increases, economic activities speed up, and demand for energy goes up. The energy sector will acquire dynamics of its own. He said that Oil and gas would continue to play a critical role in meeting our energy requirements.
He said that for the investors, this is a win-win situation, as there is no doubt about the demand. The Government is ready to partner with the investors, and take remedial steps to overcome the hurdles. He said that under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cross-sectoral national issues are dealt through Whole-of-the-Government approach. The Minister assured full support to the investors, and backing of the system. He said that India has conducive environment for the investors, rule of law and democracy, facilitating the investors to take commercially sound decision.
The Minister said that the Government has created an investor-friendly ecosystem, by continuously ushering policy reforms and projects that have the potential to transform the landscape of the sector. Some of these are: successful roll out of the HELP and OALP, opening up of entire sedimentary basin area to investors, National Seismic Programme.
Rameswar Teli said that since 2014, many new policy initiatives have been taken in the E&P sector, reducing regulatory burden and encouraging investment in the sector. He said that the earlier two rounds of DSF bidding were successful, and a good response is expected in this round as well. Teli said that the Government is fully committed to the holistic development of the North-east, and 3 contract areas in the current round are from the region.
Tarun Kapoor said that there are big opportunities in the Indian upstream sector, and the country is looking for enthusiastic participation from the private sector, and those from abroad. He said that after the DSF Round-III, the tenders for OALP bid Round-VI and CBM will be coming out soon. Kapoor said that it is heartening to note that the production from earlier rounds of DSF has started happening and more will follow in the next year.
The salient features of DSF policy are: Revenue Sharing Model, Single License for Conventional& Unconventional Hydrocarbons, no upfront signature bonus, Reduced Royalty rate in line with HELP, no cess, Full marketing and Pricing freedom for gas produced, Exploration allowed during entire contract period, and 100% participation from foreign companies/ joint ventures. In the earlier two rounds, 54 contracts were awarded to 27 companies including 12 new entrants.
