NDA's first oil, gas block auction gets 134 bids for 34

New Delhi: Times News Network: The first auction of oil and gas blocks by the Narendra Modi government has attracted 134 e-bids for 34 out of the 43 small fields offered under a simplified fiscal regime, while nine blocks, or nearly a fifth on offer, did not get any suitor till the close of bid submission deadline on Monday .

In the backdrop of oil and gas investments being pulled back worldwide amid supply glut and low prices, the response can be interpreted as a vote of confidence in the Modi government's drive for transparency and policy reforms to increase the ease of doing business.

“PM Modi has brought about a fundamental change in the oil sector by bringing transparency... We gave marketing and pricing freedom in new block auction policy , giving priority to competition. We removed nine policy bottlenecks to help raise domestic production... Not a single decision taken by the ministry in the last two-and-ahalf years has been questioned by the people,“ oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who trawled the world for investors, had told TOI in a recent interview.

The fields on offer are estimated to hold reserves of 48 million tonnes of oil and over 38 billion cubic metres of gas worth about Rs 70,000 crore.The fields are being offered under a simpler revenue-sharing regime instead of the production-sharing regime followed since the auctions were launched in 1999.

The Times of India, Kolkata, 22nd November, 2016, Tuesday