Open Acreage Licensing Policy:
India has offered eight blocks of oil and gas in the seventh bid round of Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP).
- The objective is to bring more area under exploration, leading to increase in domestic production and reduction of imports.
- OALP Launched under the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) in 2017.
- Under OALP, companies are allowed to carve out areas they want to explore oil and gas in.
- Companies can put in an expression of interest (EOI) for any area throughout the year but such interests are accumulated thrice in a year.
- The areas sought are then offered for bidding.
- It provides uniform licences for exploration and production of all forms of hydrocarbons, enabling contractors to explore conventional as well as unconventional oil and gas resources.
- Fields are offered under a revenue-sharing model and throw up marketing and pricing freedom for crude oil and natural gas produced.
