Tenth round of NELP auction unlikely before polls

05 Feb 2014 Evaluate

If the government pays heeds to Planning Commission's advice, the tenth round of NELP auctions are unlikely to happen until the general elections or for that matter even come up for consideration by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs by the February 15 date set by Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister M Veerappa Moily.

The fate of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) X also is uncertain due to absence of consensus on the revenue-sharing model it should offer contractors. While, Planning Commission is of the view that Petroleum Ministry should go with the Vijay Kelkar panel’s recommendation to continue with the current production-sharing contract regime, which allows cost recovery, Finance and Petroleum Ministries opine that a production-linked system, which is more transparent, should be adopted. Finance and Petroleum Ministries’ opinion is in line with the recommendations of the Rangarajan panel on production-sharing contracts.

The cost recovery regime has been one big problem in the oil and gas exploration regime. The existing system requires a close scrutiny of costs, since there is incentive for the contractors to show higher cost.

So far, the government has offered exploration blocks under specific policies, such as NELP for oil and gas, but this time ministry has planned to launch the latest round under the Uniform Licensing Policy regime, which will allow explorers to hunt for all kinds of resources- oil, gas, coal-bed methane or shale. It proposes to offer 46 blocks, but this number could go up to 65.

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