HOUSTON—India is pulling out all stops in an effort to lure oil and gas companies to develop 67 onshore and offshore oil and gas fields that have already been discovered.

In its first bid round utilizing revenue-sharing contracts, India—which has one of the world’s fastest-growing populations and economies—has ditched technical prequalification bidding requirements, has no mandatory work program and is granting access to existing infrastructure.

For offshore fields, royalty rates have been lowered, down to zero for the first seven years for deepwater and ultra-deepwater exploration. Also, companies are being given “marketing and pricing freedom” for crude oil and natural gas with exemption from custom duty.

“If you invest in India’s oil and gas sector, you will find that you have a market right there, and you don’t have to invest in export infrastructure,” India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan told a crowd attending the round’s first road show July 14. “Fortunately, all of the fields are already discovered.”

But the push to develop hydrocarbon resources in India arrives as the global oil and gas industry continues to recover from a downturn that has tanked commodity prices and driven investors to keep close tabs on spending and focus on core areas.

Energy analysts at Wood Mackenzie recently reported that global upstream and exploration spending has already fallen by more than $1 trillion since oil prices began to nosedive in 2014.

Getting potential investors to part with money nowadays might be a challenge.

Yet, the prospectivity of some areas is still attracting companies. Calling its latest licensing round positive, Ireland awarded 14 new licensing options as part of its Atlantic Margin Licensing Round in June after receiving 43 applications.

For India, the risks are low for oil and gas companies because the fields are developed, said Atanu Chakraborty, director-general of hydrocarbons for India. “These fields are spread across prolific basins,” he added.

As part of the bid round, 67 discovered small fields are being offered for development in 46 contract areas, including 26 onshore, 18 shallow-water and two deepwater areas. Indian energy officials say the area is believed to hold an estimated 625 million barrels (MMbbl) of oil and oil-equivalent gas in place across more than 1,500 square kilometers.

Contract areas include Assam, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh, as well as the offshore areas of Mumbai, Kutch and Krishna Godavari (KG).

The contracts are for a period of 20 years, or the economic life of the field. Bids for the round, which officially launched May 25, will be opened Oct. 31 with awards being announced within the following two months. The bid parameters are weighted at 80% and 20%, respectively, on the government’s share of revenue and the proposed work program, specifically the number of appraisal and development wells.

The round comes as India’s energy demand continues to grow.

“What is being produced in these fields will be fairly easy to sell,” Chakraborty said.

India’s primary energy consumption rose by 5.2% in 2015—boosting its share of global energy consumption to 5.3%, KPMG pointed out, citing the 2016 BP Statistical Review. The country is also one of the world’s largest consumers of oil and petroleum products—company includes the U.S., China and Japan.

“Total oil and oil equivalent consumption of India was 241 MMT [million tons], whereas total production was 67.5 MMT during 2015-2016,” according to KMPG’s presentation. “Oil and gas imports constituted about 78.9% and 42.2%, respectively, of India’s total domestic oil and gas consumption in 2015-2016.”

India aims to reduce its oil import dependence by 10% by 2022.

Potential E&P development opportunities are plentiful, according to Magna Energy CEO Mike Watts, who pointed out India’s deepwater, HP/HT, EOR, shale and tight oil opportunities.

But he warned that shale gas development is still in the “embryonic” stage and tight gas/oil geology needs de-risking, particularly in the Cambay Basin, where attempts at proof of concept wells have failed to establish flow rates in tight reservoirs.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates India could have between 63 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) and 96 Tcf of shale gas potential.

“There may be some hidden gems there,” he said after highlighting some of India’s E&P success stories.

In the Cairn India-operated Ravva Field in the KG-Basin offshore, reserves have grown from 90 MMboe to more than 300 MMboe. A plateau rate of 50 Mbbl/d has been achieved against the approved rate of 35 Mbbl/d.

Onshore in the Rajasthan Block, more than 27 discoveries have been made and more than 800 wells have been drilled so far. The block, which includes the Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya discoveries among others, has more than 7 Bboe of discovered resources.

Indian energy officials told Hart Energy that the bid round has already captured the attention of about 80 companies.

The last time India offered small discovered fields was in 1993, according to Amar Nath, India’s joint secretary of exploration. Of the 28 fields offered, 25 are operational today.

Velda Addison can be reached at vaddison@hartenergy.com.