October 27, 2026: Companies seeking deepwater and ultra-deepwater oil and gas blocks in India will be able to file expressions of interest (EoIs) every month under a special round of the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP), the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) said on Monday. A 21-day EoI window will open on the first of every month, giving bidders 12 windows a year, according to a DGH advance notice to prospective bidders. Bids for these blocks will be judged on the committed work programme alone, with no revenue-share quote.

The new bid round is being introduced under the Centre's ambitious, Rs 84,084-crore scheme to expand domestic oil and gas production — Samudra Manthan.

The existing OALP modalities provided for three EoI windows a year, running from August 1 to November 30, December 1 to March 31 and April 1 to July 31. But under the special round, each monthly window will run its own evaluation, bidding and award in parallel, the notice said. As a result, “bidders need not wait for a single annual round.”

Bidders will now compete on the work they commit to. The originator of a block will get 10 marks, the notice said, and another 10 marks will go to bidders with demonstrated deepwater or ultra-deepwater drilling experience.

The change matters most for Category-I basins. DGH defines these as basins with proven hydrocarbon resources and established commercial production. Until now, Category-I bidders quoted a share of revenue for the government, and that quote carried 30 of 100 marks, according to the existing modalities. The work programme carried 65 marks and the originator five. Bids for Category-II and III basins, which have no established commercial production, were already evaluated on the work programme alone, with 10 marks for the originator. The existing modalities gave no marks for drilling experience. They required an operator to show one year of operatorship experience.

(Source: PSU Watch)