India expects to draw wider participation from investors and oil companies based in the UAE in the bidding process for 67 discovered small oil and gas fields, a senior official of the country's Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a road show to promote the initiative titled, "Discovered Small Field Bid Round 2016," K D Tripathi, Secretary at MoPNG, said the large presence of oil companies makes the UAE a natural location to stage interactive meetings after those in Houston and Calgary.

Under new initiative that seeks to boost domestic oil and gas production, 67 DSF of ONGC and Oil India Ltd, which could not be monetised during previous years, are being offered for international bidding by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbon (DGH), the technical arm of the MoPNG. Road Shows for this round were also held in Mumbai and Guwahati.

Tripathi said the auctions under the new Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy would usher a more transparent regime of resource allocations and greater ease of doing business. Progressive administrative and fiscal procedures have been introduced in this bidding process in sync with best international practices.

The new initiative is in line with the government's target of reducing import dependency of oil and gas by 10 per cent by 2022, he said.

With an annual oil demand of 1.5 billion barrels and a surging per capita energy demand, oil imports currently account for 78 per cent of the domestic consumption.

Under the Discovered Small Field Policy, the government is offering for bidding 67 discovered small fields in over 40 contract areas spread over nine sedimentary basins on land and in shallow and deep water areas. The fields hold 625 million barrels of oil and gas reserves spread over 1500 sq km. Of the 46 contract areas, 26 are on land, 18 offshore in shallow water and two in deep water. While 28 discoveries are in the Mumbai offshore, another 14 are in the east coast's Krishna Godavari basin. In March, India government approved the new oil and gas exploration policy based on a revenue-sharing model, as opposed to cost-and-output-based norms earlier.

The new model will replace the controversial production sharing contracts - by which oil and gas blocks are awarded to those firms, which show they will do maximum work on a block - that has governed the bidding under the earlier nine rounds.

The latest bidding round, which opened on July 15, will close by October 31. The previous exploration licensing round ended in March 2012.

Atanu Chakraborty, director general of DGH, said operators would have autonomy and flexibility for unit development in case of reservoirs extending beyond contract area or for joint development of common infrastructure. They will be issued a single licence for exploration of conventional and non-conventional hydrocarbons and will have the freedom to sell oil and gas at "arms length" market prices. There will be no cess and custom duty on crude oil.

Operators will be given full freedom for marketing and pricing for production from the awarded contract areas. Technical capability is not a pre-qualification criterion for bidding. Exploration will be allowed during entire contract period of 20 years, which is mutually extendable for up to 10 years. There will not be any restriction on exploration activity during the contract period, he said.-

Issac John Associate Business Editor of Khaleej Times, is a well-connected Indian journalist and an economic and financial commentator. He has been in the UAE's mainstream journalism for 35 years, including 23 years with Khaleej Times. A post-graduate in English and graduate in economics, he has won over two dozen awards. Acclaimed for his authentic and insightful analysis of global and regional businesses and economic trends, he is respected for his astute understanding of the local business scene.