OPEN ACREAGE LICENSING POLICY

 

For: Mains

Topics covered:

• About Open Acreage Licensing Policy
• What is Geoscientific Data Generation Policy
• About Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP)

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News Flash

The government offered for seven oil and natural gas new areas for bidding under Open Acreage Licensing Policy- IV.

• Five blocks offered are in little-explored Vindhyan sedimentary basin, while one block is in Bengal Purnea basin and one in basin of Rajasthan.

 

Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP)

• To make India a favorable destination around the world for Exploration of Crude Oil and Natural Gas, the Government plans to move to the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) regime soon.
• This will enable upstream companies to bid for any Oil and Gas block without waiting for the announcement of bidding.
• Bidding as currently under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) region. Companies have to wait.
• OALP is under consideration of the Government wherein blocks may be offered round the year to the interested companies for faster exploration.

 

Need of OALP

• As India has vast unexplored sedimentary basins, a strategy that facilitates a time-bound full coverage has become a necessity.
• The Planning Commission also observed that the existing multiclient speculative survey policy will not serve the desired objective.
• The policy prescription must provide for a definite strategy -one for proven basins wherein the data companies could acquire multiclient data at their own expense and risk, and offer the data to interested companies who may be able to obtain the chosen acreages through an OALP process.

 

Geo-scientific Data Generation Policy

It has been decided to formulate a Geo-scientific Data Generation Policy for Hydrocarbons in the country which will be a cornerstone for the launch of Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) to promote E&P activities. This Policy envisages two basic models for the generation of geoscientific data for Indian basins

(i) Non-exclusive Multi-client Model

In areas where there are expressions of interest by Service Provider to carry out Survey.

(ii) Funding by Government

For area for which no offer to Conduct Survey under (i) is received even after two years of its launch, the Government may initiate Survey with its own funds.

 

Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP)

The Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) replacing the erstwhile New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) was approved in March 2016 and the Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP) along with the National Data Repository (NDR) were launched in June 2017 as the key drivers to accelerate the Exploration and Production (E&P) activities in India.

The main features of HELP are the Revenue Sharing Contract, single Licence for exploration and production of conventional as well as unconventional hydrocarbon resources, marketing & pricing freedom, etc.

 

 

Source: Business Standard

 

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