Oil and gas fields’ auction approved by Cabinet; generation of jobs

An oil and gas field is a field, or vast reservoir, that contains both oil and natural gas.

The Union Cabinet approved offering of 60 oil and gas fields of ONGC and Oil India Ltd, among others in the second auction of Discovered Small Field round.

Out of the 60 fields, 22 were discovered by Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), 5 belong to Oil India Ltd and 12 are relinquished fields/discoveries from blocks offered in bids rounds under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) since 1999, an official statement said.

The remaining 21 are fields that did not receive any bid in the DSF first round last year.

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The Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave “its approval for extending the Discovered Small Field Policy notified on October 14, 2015, to identified 60 discovered small fields / un-monetized discoveries for offer under the Discovered Small Field Policy Bid Round-ll,” it said.

These discoveries are estimated to have 194.65 million tons of oil and oil equivalent gas in place.

“These fields will be developed and monetized faster thereby augmenting production of oil and gas leading to enhance the energy security of the country,” the statement said.

Investments in these fields will lead to the generation of over 88,000 jobs as direct, indirect and induced employment, it said.

Empowered Committee of Secretaries (ECS) comprising Secretary (Petroleum and Natural Gas), Secretary (Expenditure) and Law Secretary will finalize and approve Model Revenue Sharing Contract, Notice Inviting Offer (NIO) and other documents for Discovered Small Fields Bid Round-ll.

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The award of contract will be approved by the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Minister of Finance based on the recommendations of ECS.

In the first round, contracts for 31 fields were signed last year. The fields signed off in first round envisage a cumulative peak production of around 15,000 barrels per day of oil and 2 million standard cubic meters of gas.