India’s Hydrocarbon Outlook 2024 158 A Report on Exploration & Production Activities Salient features of HELP • Opportunity to carve out blocks using National Data Repository (NDR) and Unified Licence for both conventional and unconventional Hydrocarbons • Simple and easy to administer Revenue Sharing Model • Low regulatory burden • Easy entry and easy exit • Complete transparency and time bound process • Marketing and pricing freedom • Reduced royalty regime for Ultra-Deep water and Deep water areas • Exploration rights for full contract life In order to make policy more attractive, Government further notified the policy reforms on 28th February 2019, where many of the processes and approvals were relaxed to promote “Ease of Doing Business”. These reforms were focused to increase exploration activities, attract domestic and foreign investment in unexplored/unallocated areas of sedimentary basins. These reforms were made applicable fromOALP Round IV onwards. Some of the features of policy reforms are as follows: • More weightage to Work Programme than the Revenue Share for Category-I Basin. • Revenue Share from Category II & III type of basins were removed except in case of windfall gain. • Concession in Royalty rates • Liberal freedom to Transfer/Exit the blocks • No obligation to run Drill Stem Test • Introduction of alternate dispute resolution mechanism and Empowered Coordination Committee (ECC) for expediting statutory clearances/approvals. To enhanced the participation, the amendments in the bid documents for bid round VIII onwards has been carried out in May2023. For Category-II & III blocks only seismic work programme was biddable. The objective of such amendments is to address the issues of existing operators which they are facing in existing contractual framework and to make them compatible for the needs of global E&P players so that the bid documents can be made globally competitive. Some of the key incentives are as follows: o Maximum Block size up to 20,000 sq.km is allowed to carved out for play based exploration o Scope of Force Majeure and Excusable delays enhanced o Stabilization period for revenue share at LRP rate increased up to 7 years o 3 Year RetentionPeriod for Sub-Commercial Discoveries o Change in consortium is allowed prior to bidding, Free Basic Data package, Reduced Bid Bond, Rationalized Operatorship experience For Category-II & III Basins some specific incentives were also provided which are as follows: o Extended exploration phase of 7 years period divided into two phases • Phase-1 of 3 Years: Seismic CommittedWork Programme • Phase-II shall be for a period of four (4) years for drilling exploratory wells 2 Years: 1 Exploratory Well Commitment 2 Years: 1 Exploratory Well Commitment o Bidding only on 2D & 3D Seismic with originator incentive of 10 points o Swapping of CWP with other surveys and Exploration Wells allowed HELP is in line with GOI’s policy of Minimum Government, Maximum Governance and Ease of Doing Business.
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