India offers a special auction of discovered small oil and gas fields

The Indian government has offered three discovered small oil and gas fields in the latest auction, which would close on July 15.

The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), the oil ministry arm that conducts oilfield auctions, has announced a special discovered small fields bid round, offering two fields in Mumbai offshore and one coal bed methane field in West Bengal.

These small fields were discovered in the past by state firms but left undeveloped as they were found to be economically unviable. The government has been taking back such fields from state firms and auctioning them to private players under a new fiscal regime. Operators of these small fields will have full pricing and marketing freedom and can undertake exploration during the entire contract period.