The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas organised a series of upstream-focused engagements in Mumbai on 19 January, centred on financing challenges, regulatory reforms, and promotion of upcoming oil and gas exploration bid rounds, according to a government release issued on Tuesday.
The day-long programme saw participation from domestic and international upstream operators, exploration and production service providers, consulting firms, financial institutions, insurers and academic experts, reflecting interest in India’s upstream exploration framework.
The engagements comprised three components: a workshop on financing exploration and production growth, a session on amendments to the Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Act and related petroleum rules, and a bid-promotion event for forthcoming upstream licensing rounds. Senior representatives from the Ministry and the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons interacted with participants during the sessions.
The financing workshop examined the readiness of India’s financial ecosystem to support expanded upstream activity, including higher capital requirements associated with offshore and frontier exploration. Consulting firms including S&P Global, Deloitte, A.T. Kearney and EY shared international perspectives on upstream financing models, capital mobilisation and risk allocation.
Financial institutions and insurers, including State Bank of India, New India Assurance and Bajaj Allianz, discussed risk assessment frameworks, bank guarantee structures and emerging risk-mitigation instruments such as insurance-backed surety bonds, the release said.
A separate session focused on the amended Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Act, revised Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules, and the updated Model Revenue Sharing Contract. The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons outlined how the revised contractual framework aligns with recent legislative and regulatory changes.
During the bid-promotion segment, details of upcoming licensing rounds were presented. Open Acreage Licensing Policy Bid Round X will offer 25 exploration blocks covering about 182,589 square kilometres, with 91 per cent of the area offshore. Discovered Small Field Bid Round IV will include nine contract areas covering 55 discoveries with an estimated 200 million metric tonnes of oil equivalent in 2P reserves.
Coal Bed Methane bid rounds planned for 2025–26 will comprise 16 blocks, with prognosticated gas resources of about 74 billion cubic metres in 2025 and 200 billion cubic metres in 2026, according to the release.
The programme also highlighted India’s estimated yet-to-find hydrocarbon resource potential of about 3.9 billion tonnes of oil equivalent, access to exploration data through the National Data Repository, and pricing freedom under revenue-sharing contracts.
