The government will offer more than two dozen oil and gas blocks for exploration through competitive bidding under the New Exploration Licensing Policy. 

"Preparations for the fourth round of NELP are going on and we will come out with more oil and gas blocks in the first
week of April," Petroleum Minister Ram Naik said at the contract signing ceremony for 23 blocks offered under third
round of NELP in New Delhi.

Of the 23 production sharing contracts signed on Tuesday, state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation initialled licence agreement for 13 oil and gas blocks, while Reliance Industries, in consortium with Hardy Oil of United Kingdom, inked contracts for nine blocks including seven prime deep water blocks.

Minimum committed investment in the first exploratory phase in 23 blocks would be around $415 million, he
said, adding a total of $1.05 billion investment has been committed in three phases of exploration and production.

ONGC on its part inked PSC for nine blocks. It was joint signatory with Oil India Ltd for three blocks, while for the
remaining one block it signed agreement with Indian Oil Corp.

Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation, in consortium with Geo Global Resources (India) Ltd and Jubiliant Enpro
India Ltd, was the third successful company, with signed contract for the KG-OSN-2001/3 offshore blocks in Krishna
Godavari Basin.

"The estimated investment in exploration of 70 blocks awarded under three round of NELP is about Rs 14,500 crore (Rs 145 billion) in three phases," he added.

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