Reliance Industries and its British partner BP Plc have made their first bid for an oil and gas exploration acreage in over eight years by bidding for one of the 32 blocks up for auction in the latest licensing round that saw mining major Vedanta putting in as many as 30 bids while state-owned ONGC bid count went to 20.
Bidding for 14 blocks on offer in the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) round-II and another 18 oil and gas blocks and five coal-bed methane (CBM) blocks on offer under OALP-III closed on Wednesday.
Official sources said Vedanta, which had won 41 of the 55 blocks offered under OALP-I last year, bid for 30 areas. Oil and Natural Gas Corp. bid for 20 blocks while Oil India Ltd. bid for 16. Indian Oil Corp. GAIL (India) and SunPetro bid for two blocks each.
