Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP):
Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas launches Open Acreage Licensing Programme Bid Round-VIII
- Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) along with the National Data Repository (NDR) was launched in June 2017 as the key driver to accelerate the Exploration and Production (E&P) activities in India.
- Under OALP, companies are given the freedom to carve out areas they want to explore oil and gas. The areas sought are then put on auction.
- The successful roll-out of the HELP regime, followed by OALP Bid Rounds, has led to an increase in exploration acreages in India.
- HELP which replaced the erstwhile New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) in 2016. Under it:-
- Exploration blocks shall be awarded on a continuous basis through e-bidding in a transparent manner.
- It followed the Revenue sharing modelinstead of Profit-sharing for hydrocarbon exploration.
- Unified license for all types of hydrocarbons.
- Freedom to carve out acreages of choice under OALP bid rounds.
- Full marketing and pricing freedom of gas.
