The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved 52 oil and gas blocks as part of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) bagged 24 of them. Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) managed to get seven deep-water blocks, Oil India Limited and its consortium six and Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation and Naftogaz got three each. Australian company Santos and Essar Oil have got two each while Focus, Petrogas, Cairn Energy, Prize Petroleum and Geoglobal got one each.

The government had offered 55 blocks but got offers for only 52 blocks