New Delhi, November 9: The government has extended the deadline for submitting bids for deep-sea oil and gas exploration blocks under its 10th and 11th Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) rounds by almost a month, giving prospective investors until December 10, 2026, to submit offers for deepwater and ultra-deepwater acreage, The Hindu BusinessLine reported. The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), the upstream oil and gas nodal agency of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, states on its website that bids for the deepwater and ultra-deepwater blocks offered in OALP Bid Round-X and OALP Bid Round-XI are now due on December 10.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

The latest extension is the seventh postponement for OALP-X and the third for OALP-XI, underscoring the challenges of attracting investment into India's technically complex offshore exploration sector despite a series of policy and fiscal measures, BusinessLine said. Bidding for onshore and shallow-water blocks in both rounds closed on June 19, 2026; the deepwater deadline was subsequently extended first to September 17, then to November 15, and has now been moved to December 10. Blitz India Media also reported the December 10 extension on Monday.

Source: Blitz India Media

While the DGH did not specify reasons for the latest postponement, industry sources said the move may be linked to the recently announced Rs 84,084-crore Samundra Manthan National Offshore Exploration Scheme. The scheme's guidelines, under which the government will bear up to 50 per cent of the cost of drilling deep-sea and ultra-deepwater wells, were announced on October 22, and sources said the extension gives companies additional time to evaluate the revised policy and financial support framework. The scheme, approved by the Cabinet in July, has an approved outlay through FY31 and aims to unlock more than 600 million tonnes of additional oil-equivalent hydrocarbon resources, BusinessLine reported.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

What is on offer in the two rounds

OALP-X, launched in February 2025, offered 25 blocks covering about 1,82,589 sq km across 13 sedimentary basins — the largest bid round by acreage at the time — including one deepwater and 12 ultra-deepwater blocks, with the 13 deepwater and ultra-deepwater blocks covering about 124,327 sq km. OALP-XI, launched in March 2026, offered 21 blocks covering 80,234.49 sq km across 11 basins, including one deepwater and four ultra-deepwater blocks; nine of its blocks are offshore, covering about 45,296 sq km.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

A single deepwater exploratory well can cost an estimated $125 million to $150 million, according to the Petroleum Ministry, and India imports more than 88 per cent of its crude oil requirements, making new domestic discoveries a key part of its energy-security strategy. The OALP framework, introduced under the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy in 2016, lets companies express interest in acreage rather than waiting for the government to identify blocks. Whether the Samundra Manthan support changes bidder economics enough to produce strong bids by December 10 is the question the repeated extensions have left open.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine