New Delhi, March 28: Most global oil majors shunned India’s ninth round of auctions of oil and gas exploration blocks held today that saw ONGC bagging 10 blocks.

The government received 74 applications, including bids from Reliance, BHP Billiton, BG Group and East West Petroleum Corporation, for 33 blocks.

India hopes to sign production sharing contracts by July-end with the winners of the oil and gas blocks. The government had actually put 34 blocks on auction, but one block did not get any bidder, while 14 received just one bid each.

Global explorers such as BP, Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil Corp, Chevron and ConocoPhillips avoided the auction as overseas firms were reportedly put off by the country’s tightly regulated oil and gas prices and uncertainty in energy policies, analysts said.

However, oil minister S. Jaipal Reddy told reporters: “The response to this ninth round under Nelp has been more than satisfactory. It has been encouraging.

“The government will evaluate the bids and the blocks will be awarded within three months. The entire process, including the signing of contracts, is expected to be completed in four months,” he said.

India expects investments of $14 billion in this round, which includes eight deepwater blocks, seven shallow water and 19 onshore blocks.

ONGC, which had won almost two-third of the blocks offered in the previous Nelp rounds, bid with firms such as Oil India Ltd (OIL) for as many as 29 blocks but managed to get 10, official sources said.

Reliance Industries had bid for two deep-sea blocks in the Andaman Basin in the Bay of Bengal and four onshore blocks in Rajasthan and Gujarat, and sources said it had been declared provisional winner of the two deep-sea areas.

The only other notable bidder was UK’s BG Group, which teamed up with BHP Billiton for a deep-water block in the Mumbai basin, off the west coast. BG-BHP were declared winners.

Essar Oil bagged the most contested block in the Cambay basin. The Gujarat onshore block, which received the highest number of six bids, was the only block that Essar bid.

Cairn India had submitted bids for an onland and an offshore block but lost both. It did not bid for the blocks in Rajasthan.

Sources said ONGC and partners got five out of the eight deepwater blocks on offer. Reliance got two and BG-BHP one. While six of seven shallow blocks got bids, ONGC and partners managed to bag five of them. OIL as an operator got the sixth.

Small companies held the show in 19 onland blocks with OIL managing to win just two. Essar was the only other notable winner, while the rest went to small companies.

Reddy said the country’s energy fields attracted enough enthusiasm from explorers as 10 new companies (two foreign and eight Indian) had placed bids either on their own or in consortium.

He, however, rejected arguments that regulatory troubles with London-listed mining group Vedanta Resources’ buyout of Cairn India sent negative signals to investors. “We have not taken a negative view of (to the $9.6 billion transaction), nor a positive view... we have maintained absolute neutrality,” he said.

“We have sent out a cabinet note ... as to when it should be put up before the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) depends on Cabinet Secretariat… it can be taken up anytime,” Reddy said.

“We are of the view that royalty should be treated as cost recoverable,” Reddy said, adding whether it should be a condition for the deal should be decided by the CCEA.

A CCEA meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, but the approval for the Cairn-Vedanta deal is not listed on its agenda.

A total of 37 companies comprising eight foreign companies and 29 Indian companies have bid either on their own or as a part of a consortia, he added.

The government has so far awarded 235 blocks for exploration in the previous eight rounds of Nelp, which was introduced first in 1997. So far, 87 discoveries have been made in 26 blocks under the Nelp regime, and reserves having 642 million tonnes of oil and oil-equivalent gas have been established from these discoveries.