OREANDA-NEWS. Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), Government of India organized an interactive meet at Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on August 23, 2016 for the Discovered Small Field Bid Round 2016. The event saw enthusiastic participation from government dignitaries, business leaders and leading national and international media houses.

Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), the technical arm of MoPNG highlighted the offering of 46 Contract Areas consisting of 67 small fields for exploration and production of oil and gas in India having 625 Million Barrels of Oil and Oil Equivalent Gas (O+OEG) in-place volumes, spread over 1500 sq. km. This initiative under the broad policy framework of Hydrocarbon and Exploration License Policy (HELP), is in line with Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of reducing import dependency on oil and gas by 10% by 2022 in India.

During the interaction, it was informed that as part of the new bid round 2016, a single uniform policy would be issued for exploration and development of conventional as well as unconventional hydrocarbon resources, based on Revenue Sharing Contract Model replacing the earlier Production Sharing Contract Model. Other incentives would include no signature bonus, no mandatory work programme and fiscal incentives such as no oil cess, exemption of custom duty and graded royalty rates.

There were multiple presentations with regards to Ease of Doing Business in India as well as on details of the new bid round. The Consul General of India to UAE, Mr. Anurag Bhushan impressed upon the India-UAE trade relations and highlighted the efforts made from both the respective governments to improve the investor sentiment as well as strengthen the economic ties.

Presentations given during the sessions highlighted the key statistics and overall macroeconomic scenario of Indian economy with oil and gas focus, the advantages of the operating environment in India, and also discussed India’s positive upstream investment environment and the attractiveness of the Indian economy, compared to other Asian economies. Presentations were also made on the Indian Taxation Regime for E&P sector discussing the direct and indirect tax law pertaining to the oil and gas sector, and on the facilities and infrastructure available near the offered fields for the use of prospective bidders.

Mr. Atanu Chakraborty, Director General, DGH gave a detailed presentation on the exploration and production regime in India, attractive features of the bid round, bid qualifying criteria and parameters. He highlighted the benefits of the transparent HELP policy and also discussed the success of the new bid round in terms of participation and media coverage at earlier events.

A virtual data room was launched to assist investors to view geoscientific and geophysical data online. Besides, the provision of an indicative viability model to help investors have a broad and initial understanding of the financial viability of the contract areas on offer and a facilitation cell to handle queries, was also informed.

Secretary, MoPNG Mr. K.D. Tripathi quoted the words of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India who believes that “We do not need Acts but Action” and urged the investors to invest in the available opportunity to accelerate India’s success and be associated with its 125 year old Hydrocarbon Industry.

Indian delegation also conducted a roundtable interaction with industry players to discuss miniscule aspects of the bid round. Later, the Secretary, MoPNG also conducted one on one interaction with key industry players.