New Delhi, Nov. 21: State-owned ONGC, Reliance Industries and global major BP Plc today skipped the auction of discovered small and marginal oilfields, which attracted bids for 34 of the 46 blocks on offer.

The bidding round witnessed participation from five foreign companies, 32 domestic private companies and five PSUs.

At least 134 bids have been received at the close of the auction today, with 40 new companies entering the sector. Cairn India and Hindustan Oil Exploration were the major bidders alongside five smaller foreign companies, the petroleum ministry said.

State-owned Oil India participated in the auction as part of a consortium. RIL subsidiary Sun Petrochemicals also put in its bids. Other notable private bidders were Adani Welspun and Quippo Oil & Gas, while upstream units of Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd as well as Indian Oil and GAIL (India) Ltd also submitted bids.

Smaller and lesser known companies such as Gem Laboratories, Megha Engineering, Invenire Energy, Akhil Teja Natural Resources and Global Coal and Mining made up for the bulk of the bids.

The oil ministry said the response from investors was "favourable" despite challenging global environment. According to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, the bid round took place in a challenging global market environment when the oil and gas prices were volatile and investment in the exploration and production sector has seen a substantial decline.

"Despite the above challenges, the response to discovered small fields bid round has been very favourable and exceeded expectations of all experts. It has not only attracted the interest of the oil & gas companies but also attracted the interest of the first time investors in the E&P sector," the DGH said.