Indian Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is set to launch a bidding round for 67 discovered small fields.

In a statement on Thursday, the ministry said that “Discovered Small Field Bidding Round – 2016” will be launched on 25th May, 2016 in New Delhi. Under the bidding round, India is offering 67 discovered small fields in 46 Contract areas spread over 9 sedimentary basins in onshore, shallow water and deep water areas for bidding which have known hydrocarbon discoveries.

The ministry says that these fields have been discovered by India’s National oil companies and are now being offered under “exclusive policy which is designed to be investor friendly and is based on easy to administer Revenue Sharing contract model, in tune with the Government’s policy of ‘Ease of doing business’ in India.”

The ministry says that there are more more than 85 MMT of in-place volume of reserves in the offered areas.

The Revenue Sharing Contract will be revised, and it will involve international competitive bidding with no mandatory domestic participation.

Also, the ministry said there is no mandatory prior technical experience required for the bidder nor is there any mandatory work program.

There will be no cess (a tax or levy), and minimal royalty is in line with earlier New Exploration Licensing Policy, the ministry said. Furthermore, its said that goods and services imported for petroleum operations will be exempted from custom duty.

“The investors will not only get an opportunity to enter in Indian upstream market but will also experience freedom for pricing and marketing of Crude and Gas on arms length basis. The Contract extension clause is generous and there will be no restriction on exploration during the contract period. Road shows are being planned in India and abroad to attract investors for the Bidding Round,” the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said.