India seeks bids for oil, gas fields

MUMBAI: India is putting up for auction nearly four dozen small oil and gas fields in the first such sale in six years, the country´s oil ministry said in a newspaper advertisement on Tuesday.  A successful auction of the small oil and gas fields is seen as crucial to a recently announced hydrocarbon policy, which India hopes will unlock energy resources worth $40 billion by simplifying rules and offering pricing incentives.

The world´s fourth-biggest oil and gas consumer imports nearly three-quarters of its energy requirements, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target of cutting its fuel import dependency to two-thirds by 2022 and to half by 2030.India is auctioning a total of 46 oil and gas fields, the oil ministry said, with 26 on land, 18 offshore in shallow water and two in deep water.