Cairn Oil & Gas, a part of Vedanta Group and India’s largest private oil and gas producer, has expanded its exploration footprint by acquiring 7 new blocks in the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) Round IX auction. The official contract signing ceremony took place in the presence of Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Hon’ble Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas.
The new acquisition includes 4 onshore and 3 shallow water blocks located across the Cambay, Saurashtra, and Mumbai hydrocarbon basins. With this addition, Cairn now holds a total of 69 blocks, covering an area of over 73,000 sq. km across India.
Cairn secured the largest share in this round, acquiring 7 out of the 28 blocks awarded. This aligns with the company’s stated goal of contributing significantly to India’s domestic crude oil production.
In previous OALP rounds, Cairn acquired 36 blocks in Round I, 5 blocks in Round II and 3 blocks in Round III.
The company holds 100% participatory interest in all its OALP blocks. In addition to these, Cairn also operates several legacy blocks awarded under the earlier NELP and pre-NELP regimes.
The newly acquired blocks are expected to support Cairn’s upstream investment strategy, particularly in the West Coast region. Cairn currently operates the Lakshmi and Gauri oil and gas fields in the offshore Cambay basin (CB/OS-2 block) near Suvali, Surat, and the Jaya onshore field in Bharuch district, Gujarat.
