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India to auction 55 blocks for oil and gas exploration today

New Delhi: India will today put on auction 55 exploration blocks in the first bid round in eight years that will offer a record area for prospecting of oil and gas, the head of country's upstream regulator said. 

This will be the first auction under the new Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) that allows companies to carve out blocks of their choice with a view to bringing about 2.8 million square kilometres of unexplored area in the country under exploration. 

Atanu Chakraborty, Director General of the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) said the HELP brought in open acreage licensing policy that allowed companies to put in an expression of interest (EoI) for prospecting of oil and gas in any area that is presently not under any production or exploration licence. 

The blocks or areas that receive EoIs are put up for auction with the originator or the firm that originally selected the area getting a 5-mark advantage. 

"The EoI opened in July last year and we got EoIs for 57 blocks by the end of the deadline on November 15. After scrutiny and eliminating areas in no-go zone and overlapping, 55 blocks remain which are being put up for auction beginning tomorrow," he told here. 

The 55 blocks have a total area of 59,282 sq km. 

"This is significant when we compare it to about 1,02,000 sq km being under exploration currently. The round opening tomorrow would lead to jump in area under exploration by 50 per cent," he said.