India Approves Award of 16 Oil, Gas Blocks

The government of India on Friday approved the award of 16 oil and gas blocks that were bid for in the ninth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), Press Trust of India reported Friday.

The government had offered 34 areas for exploration and production of oil and gas in the 9th round of bidding under NELP and bids for received for 33 had been received at the lose of bidding on March 28 last year.

In the previous eight rounds of NELP, 235 blocks have been awarded so far.

The 34 exploration blocks offered in NELP-IX included eight deepwater blocks, seven shallow water blocks, 11 on-land blocks, and 8 Type-S (or small) on-land blocks.