Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has signed six contracts for Discovered Small Fields (DSF) in offshore, with three each for fields in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, the company said in a statement on September 10.

The contracts were obtained under the DSF-III bid round. These also include four contract areas as a sole bidder and 2 contract areas in partnership with Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), it added.

In these six DSF-III blocks awarded to ONGC, an investment of $1,894.5 million is planned for the development in the blocks, oil refinery said.

Furthermore, ONGC also signed two contracts for fields under special CBM bid round -2021 blocks in Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh. For the two CBM blocks awarded to ONGC, the total investment commitment is to the tune of $5.94 million, it added.

The contracts were exchanged in the presence of Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri, by ONGC CMD Rajesh Kumar Srivastava on September 9 in New Delhi. ONGC Director (Offshore) Pankaj Kumar was also present, ONGC mentioned.

The DSF-III bid round 2021 was launched by the Indian government on June 10, 2021. A total of 75 fields DSF Policy were clubbed in 32 contract areas (11 inland and 21 offshore). ONGC participated in the bidding and subsequently won 6 contract areas.

The CBM special bid round 2021 was launched by the government on September 22, 2021, and concluded on May 31, 2022, with a total of 15 blocks under offer.