Cabinet approval to boost 'Ease of Doing Business' in Petroleum & Natural Gas sector
New Delhi, Apr 11 (IBNS): Following the Cabinet's approval, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Union Finance Minister will be able to award the Blocks/Contract Areas to successful bidders, according to a government release on Wednesday.
The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its approval for delegating the powers to Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Finance Minister to award the Blocks/Contract Areas to successful bidders under Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) after International Competitive Bidding (ICB) based on the recommendations of Empowered Committee of Secretaries (ECS).
Under HELP, Blocks are to be awarded twice in a year.
Therefore, this delegation of powers will expedite the decision making process on awarding blocks and give a boost to the initiative of ease of doing business.
Under the earlier NELP Policy, ECS considered the Bid Evaluation Criteria (BEC), conducted negotiations with the bidders wherever necessary and made recommendations to CCEA on award of blocks.
The CCEA would then award the blocks.
The entire process, including Inter Ministerial Consultations (IMC) was quite lengthy and time consuming.
Under the New Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy, the competitive bidding will be continuous and blocks will be awarded twice a year, thus shortening the duration of time taken for awarding of the Blocks / Contract Areas.
The Central government launched a new policy regime for Exploration & Production (E&P) sector, namely Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) in 2016.
The main features of new Policy are Revenue Sharing Contract, single Licence for exploration and production of conventional as well as unconventional Hydrocarbon resources, marketing & pricing freedom, etc.
Under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) under HELPan investor can carve out Blocks of their own interest and submit an Expression of Interest (Eol) throughout the year.
Based on the areas for which expression of interest has been expressed, bidding will be conducted every six months.
The Central government received an overwhelming response in first Eol cycle of OALP which started July 1, 2017 and closed on November 15, 2017.
In the first Bid round, 55 blocks, having an area of 59,282 sq.km and spreading across 11 states have been offered for bidding.
The bidding process is being handled through a secured and dedicated e-bidding portal.
Image: Petroleum Ministry/Twitter
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