blocks are under operation and 19 blocks have been relinquished. NELP-III Under the third round of New Exploration Licensing Policy, bids were invited by the Government of India on 27 March 2002 for 27 blocks for exploration of oil and natural gas. Of these, 9 blocks were deepwater (beyond 400m isobath), 7 shallow offshore and 11 were onland blocks The PSC’s were signed for 23 exploration blocks comprising 9 deepwater, 6 shallow offshore and 8 onland. The exploration activities are going on in 19 awarded blocks and 4 blocks had been relinquished. NELP-IV Under the Fourth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy, bids were invited by the Government of India on 8 May 2003 for 24 blocks for exploration of oil and natural gas. Of these, 12 blocks were deepwater (beyond 400m isobath), 1 shallow offshore and 11 were onland blocks. The PSC’s were signed for 20 exploration blocks. At present 19 exploration blocks are operating, comprising 9 deepwater and 10 onland. The exploration activities are going on in all the 19 awarded blocks. NELP-V Under the Fifth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy, bids were invited by the Government of India for 20 blocks for exploration of oil and natural gas. The Government received 69 bids from 48 global and domestic majors, including BP (formerly British Petroleum) and Reliance Industries, to participate in the oil exploration activity under the fifth round for 20 oil exploration blocks. Of these, 6 blocks were deepwater (beyond 400m isobath), 2 shallow offshore and 12 were onland blocks. The largest number of bids received were from Reliance which had bid for 12 of the 20 blocks, followed by ONGC which had bid for 10 and Oil India Ltd which put in a bid for six blocks. The PSC’s were signed for all 20 exploration blocks. The exploration activity is going on in all the 20 awarded blocks. As of 2012, ENI is still awaiting Drilling permission from the department of space due to the block’s proximity to a rocket launch zone (in Andaman and Nicobar Islands) of Isro. NELP-VI A total of fifty five blocks (55) were offered during the NELP VI round for exploration of oil and natural gas in 16 prospective sedimentary basins consists of 25 Onland, 6 Shallow Water and 24 Deep Water blocks. 165 bids from 68 E&P companies (36 foreign and 32 Indian) had participated in the bidding process