EoIs accumulated till May 15 are supposed to be put on auction by June 30 and those in the second window by December 31. EoIs for second round closed on May 15, 2018 and the blocks were supposed to be put for auction by June but the round was for reasons unknown delayed. Officials said after the delay in putting on offer the blocks sought in second window, it was expected that blocks in second and third window would be put on offer together. But the government appears to have gone with putting on offer only the 14 blocks sought in the second window. State gas utility GAIL, upstream arm of Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Oil Exploration Co (HOEC) won one block each.

Source: Mint January 06, 2019 12:00 UTC