UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM AND ENERGY STUDIES, DEHRADUN

SUBJECT – OIL AND GAS LAW

TOPIC – EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION PRE NELP AND THEIR

BUSINESS NARRATIVES

ASSIGNMENT WORK

SEMESTER – SEVENTH

2019 – 2020

SUBMITTED TO: PROF. A.K TYAGI

SUBMITTED BY : KAMAKSHI JOSHI - 44

B.A LL.B EL BATCH 01

UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM AND ENERGY STUDIES, DEHRADUN

SUBJECT – OIL AND GAS LAW

TOPIC – EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION PRE NELP AND THEIR

BUSINESS NARRATIVES

SEMESTER – SEVENTH

2019 – 2020

ASSIGNMENT WORK

SUBMITTED TO: PROF. A.K TYAGI

SUBMITTED BY :KANTI TIWARI- 46

B.A LL.B EL BATCH 01

After the Nomination era till late 1970s, Pre-NELP Exploration era (1980-95) and Pre-NELP
Field rounds (1992-93), Government of India formulated a policy called as New Exploration
Licensing Policy in 1997.

The main objective was to attract significant risk capital from Indian and Foreign companies,
state of art technologies, new geological concepts and best management practices to explore Oil
and Gas resources in the country to meet rising demands of Oil and Gas.

This NELP policy was approved in 1997 and it became effective in February, 1999.

Since then licenses for exploration are being awarded only through a competitive bidding system
and National Oil Companies (NOCs) are required to compete on an equal footing with Indian
and Foreign companies to secure Petroleum Exploration Licenses (PELs).

Nine rounds of bids have so far been concluded under NELP, in which production sharing
contracts for 254 exploration blocks have been signed.

Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) IOCL, GAIL, BPCL working under MoP&NG and their
subsidiaries like Bharat Petro Resources Ltd. (Subsidiary of BPCL), Prize Petroleum Company
Limited (Subsidiary of HPCL), have participated in various NELP bidding rounds and have been
awarded exploration blocks in various NELP bidding rounds. In addition to central PSU, state
PSU like GSPC have participated in various NELP bidding rounds and have been awarded
exploration blocks.
Government of India has signed 28 contracts for 29 discovered fields (1 PSC for Panna
Mukta),28exploration blocks under Pre-NELP Exploration regime and 254 blocks under NELP
regime with National Oil Companies and private (Both Indian and foreign)/ Joint Venture
companies.

At present, out of 311 exploration blocks/fields awarded so far under various bidding rounds
(Discovered Field, Pre-NELP & NELP), 178 blocks/ fields are operational.

The awarded 254 blocks are located in onland (111), offshore shallow water (62) and deepwater
(81) areas.

As a result of exploratory activities, several unexplored and poorly explored areas, in particular
offshore and deepwater areas have been appraised through geophysical surveys and exploratory
drilling.

So far a total of 140 hydrocarbon discoveries (49 Oil and 91 Gas). Most of the gas discoveries
have been made in shallow water offshore (39) and deepwater blocks (46).

NELP bidding rounds have also attracted many Private and Foreign Companies in addition to
PSUs. Before the NELP, a total 35 E&P Companies (5 PSUs, 15 Private and 15 Foreign) were
working in Nomination and Pre-NELP regime.

After the conclusion of nine rounds of NELP bidding, the total number of companies have
increased to 117 (11 PSUs, 58 Private and 48 Foreign Companies as Operators and Non-
operators/Consortium Partners). Major Private Companies were RIL, Jubilant and Essar. The
major foreign companies were British Gas, British Petroleum, Cairn Energy, ENI, Santos and
BHP Billiton.