New Delhi: The ONGC-led consortium has bid for all the 24 oil and gas blocks put up for bidding in Israel as part of the government's energy strategy and increasing co-operation with the Jewish state.

The consortium, which is led by ONGC Videsh and includes Bharat PetroResources, Indian Oil and Oil India, will have to compete with Greece's Energean, according to reports from Tel Aviv.

Israel's ministry of energy said it had received two bids from overseas companies for licences to explore gas and oil The first bid for the 24 offshore blocks is from Greece's Energean and the second is from the consortium of Indian firms.

The blocks are in close proximity to a number of large and proven gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean. The blocks are up to 400 square kilometres in size in waters up to 1,800 meters deep. Some are adjacent to the recently discovered Leviathan and Tamar fields.

Nearly 2,200 billion cubic meters of natural gas and a potential 6.6 billion barrels of oil are to be discovered in these blocks. The original deadline for bid submission was in April. It was extended to July after only four companies purchased the data package needed to participate in the call for bids. The deadline was extended again, to November, after only one company, Energean, submitted a bid.