The government has asked state-owned Oil and Natural Gas CorporationNSE 1.57 % (ONGC) and Oil IndiaNSE 1.91 % Ltd (OIL) to sell out 66 of their small oil and gas fields to private firms as it brought in a new policy to boost domestic production and cut imports, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Thursday.
To quickly bring all sedimentary basins under oil and gas exploration, the government dumped a two-year-old model of bidding out acreage or blocks to firms offering highest share of revenue, and brought in a new system of bidding them out on the basis of work programme such as drilling of wells and shooting of seismic with the winner’s only liability being payment of statutory duties like royalty and cess, he told reporters here.
