Oil and gas exploration auctions delayed

Exploration blocks in India are offered for auction under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), the first round of which was in January 1999.

During that first round, some 48 blocks were offered for the exploration of oil and natural gas.

Since then, there have been a number of further rounds – in December 2000, March 2002, May 2003, May 2005 and February 2006.

Akshay Jaitly is a partner with Trilegal, a full service law firm with offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.