India has offered two discovered oil and gas fields in Mumbai offshore and a coal bed methane field in Bengal for bidding under the category of discovered small fields (DSF).

The Directorate-General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has said the notice inviting offer (NIO) will be launched on May 28 and bids will close on July 15.

It, however, did not give details such as reserves. Those may be included in NIO.

DSF was launched in 2016 and since then three rounds have been held.

In the first round, 67 discovered oil and gas fields that were clubbed into 46 contract areas were awarded. These fields had an inplace resource potential of 45 million tonnes (mt) of oil and oil equivalent gas.

DSF-II in August 2018 offered 25 contract areas that were made up of 59 fields. These had an inplace resource potential of 190mt.

In June 2021, DSF-III offered 32 contract areas, comprising 75 fields with inplace resource potential of 232mt.

ONGC alert

A step-up in investments at Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) will slow down its deleveraging over the next 12-24 months, eroding headroom for the state-owned firm’s ‘bbb+’ standalone credit profile, S&P Global Ratings said on Monday.

ONGC’s financial results in the last fiscal were in line with expectations, S&P said. Despite a decline of 2-3 per cent in domestic oil and gas production volumes and lower realisations, EBITDA grew to Rs 1.1 lakh crore from Rs 93,600 crore in fiscal 2023.