The Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Rameswar Teli in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha informed that total 105 Exploration blocks admeasuring an area of 1,56,580 Square Kilometre have been awarded under Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) in 5 Bid Rounds. Out of 105 Blocks, 89 Blocks are presently active for carrying out exploration activities.
Production of Crude Oil from NELP blocks started in 2004-2005. Cumulative production of Crude Oil from 2004-05 to 2020-21 is 4.9 million metric tonne (MMT). Commercial production of crude oil has not commenced from OALP blocks so far.
The Government notified the policy reforms vide notification dated 28th February, 2019, in exploration and licensing policy for enhancing domestic exploration and production. The reforms provide that in respect of the large and marginal nomination fields, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL) can choose field specific production enhancement models including farm out and Joint Ventures/ Technical Service Model.
Monetisation of identified pipelines of GAIL through InVIT mechanism for providing new sources of funds for infrastructure development is envisaged.
