(ET)
The government has asked state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Oil India Ltd (OIL) to sell out 66 of their small oil and gas fields to private firms as it brought in a new policy to boost domestic production and cut imports, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
To quickly bring all sedimentary basins under oil and gas exploration, the government dumped a two-year-old model of bidding out acreage or blocks to firms offering highest share of revenue, and brought in a new system of bidding them out on the basis of work programme such as drilling of wells and shooting of seismic with the winner’s only liability being payment of statutory duties like royalty and cess, he told reporters here.
ONGC and OIL, who are battling stagnation in output from largely ageing fields, have a total of 184 fields. The national oil companies have been asked to provide enhanced production profile for 66 of these fields, which contribute 95 per cent of the 36 million tonne of annual oil production in the country, and given freedom to induct private and foreign partners or technology providers.
