According to data published by the Indian upstream regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), India-based private owned mining company Vedanta has bagged 41 out of the 55 oil and gas exploration blocks offered in the country's Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) first auction round while state-run Oil India won 9 blocks and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) only 2. The remainder was spread among state-run GAIL (the upstream arm of Bharat Petroleum Corporation) and Hindustan Petroleum, which were awarded 1 block each.
The bids closed in May 2018 and ONGC bid for 37 on its own or in consortia while OIL bid for 22 blocks. Out of the nine Indian companies which participated in the technical bidding process, five were public sector units while four were private companies. The auction offered 85% of the country's 3.14 million sq km² of hydrocarbon sedimentary area, which were made available under the framework of the new Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP). OALP rounds are expected to help India's oil import dependence from the current 80% to 67% by 2022.
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