India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has signed six contracts for Discovered Small Fields (DSF) in Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal.
The contracts, signed in the Offshore under DSF-III bid round, include three each for fields in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal.
According to a company statement, ONGC was the sole bidder for four contract areas. The company signed the remaining two contracts in partnership with another domestic peer Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL).
Around $1.89bn is expected to be invested to develop the six DSF-III blocks, the statement added.
Separately, ONGC signed two contracts for fields under Special CBM Bid round-2021 blocks in Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.
Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri was present at the contract signing event in New Delhi.
The Government of India launched the DSF-III bid round last year. It offered a total of 75 fields (Nomination & PSC Regime) clubbed in 32 contract areas (11 Onshore and 21 offshore).
The CBM special bid round 2021 included 15 blocks.
“In the Special CBM bid round-2021 under OALP, as per provisions of the RSC, a total estimated expenditure commitment is indicated by the Contractor to the Government of India. For the 2 CBM blocks awarded to ONGC, the total investment commitment is to the tune of $5.94m,” the statement said.
Last month, ONGC signed a head of agreement (HoA) with ExxonMobil to conduct deepwater exploration in the eastern and western coasts of the country.
The exploration will focus on Krishna Godavari and Cauvery Basins in the eastern offshore and the Kutch-Mumbai region in the western offshore.
