Govt extends deepsea oil, gas block bidding deadline again to December 10

The government has extended the deadline for submitting bids for deepsea oil and gas exploration blocks under its 10th and 11th Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) rounds by almost a month, giving prospective investors until December 10, 2026, to submit offers for deepwater and ultra-deepwater acreage. The latest extension marks the seventh postponement for OALP-X and the third for OALP-XI, underscoring the challenges of attracting investment into India's technically complex offshore exploration sector despite a series of policy and fiscal measures aimed at improving its attractiveness. The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), the upstream oil and gas nodal agency of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, on its website that bids for the deepwater and ultra-deepwater blocks offered in OALP Bid Round-X and OALP Bid Round-XI is now December 10. While the DGH did not specify the reasons for the latest postponement, industry sources said the move may be linked to the recently