India has issued a tender for 75 oil and gas blocks, the largest such tender in the country’s history. According to the Indian Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, the tender is for so-called discovered small fields, or DSFs, in 32 contract areas both onshore and offshore. Bids will be accepted starting February 1 2022.

The offer includes a single licence for both conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon reserves, as well as favourable tax conditions and no signing bonus requirement.

In June, the Energy Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, said this would be the last auction of small fields. He said: “There will be no DSF next time. Next time, it will be a ‘major’ round (auction of large fields).”

The 75 newly discovered small fields that will be auctioned in February were originally licenced to state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and India Oil, but the fields were too small for the two majors to exploit profitably. The tender aims to reduce the country’s significant reliance on imported oil, which accounts for more than 80% of consumption. Indian Oil Corp. signed an agreement with Russia’s Rosneft earlier this month to provide 2 million tonnes of petroleum next year. India is also a big importer of crude from the Middle East and the United States.

In November, crude oil imports were 4.08 million barrels per day, up from 3.96 million bpd in October. Middle Eastern producers supplied 2.93 million bpd of this total. North and South American imports have dropped to fewer than 700,000 bpd.

Since the policy’s inception six years ago, this is the third round of identified small fields. The state awarded licences for 54 blocks in the first two bids, garnering $1.76 billion in investment.