The Petroleum Division (PD) is all set to open the bidding, received for the auction of 20 new oil and gas Exploration and Production (E&P) blocks, on January 15. The tender inviting interested national and international companies to participate in the bidding process had been floated in national dailies on October 5, 2020. The new blocks would be awarded in all the existing four zones I,II, III and I(F), namely Block-3068-6 (Killa Saifullah), Block-2762-2 (Desert), Block-3067-7 (Sharan), Block-3272-16 (Lilla) Block-3372-25 (Abbottabad), Block-3471-1 (Nowshera), Block-3372-26 (Hazro), Block-3273-5 (Jhelum), Block- 3372-27 (North Dhurnal), Block-2668-23 (Khewari East), Block-3068-9 (Nareli), Block-3068-10 (Block-28 North), Block-3170-11 (Dera Ismail Khan), Block-3069-9 (Suleiman), Block-3072-9 (Okara), Block-3171-2 (Nurpur), Block-2972-7 (Vehari), Block-2972-8 (Sutlej), Block-2770-4 (Islamgarh) and Block-2467-17 (Sujawal South). Earlier in September 2018, the PTI government soon after coming into power realized the need to step up the exploration activities in potential areas and conducted a bidding round of 10 onshore exploration blocks, which was held after a gap of almost five years. Unfortunately, the previous government remained unable to award even a single oil and gas exploration blocks during its five-year tenure from the year 2013-2018 The new E&P blocks’ auction is part of the government strategy adopted to achieve self-sufficiency in the oil and gas sector by introducing ease-of-doing-business and radical measures to ensure a level-playing field for all competitors. The country’s total sedimentary area is around 827,268 square kilometers, out of which 320, 741 KM or 39 per cent of the area is under exploration. According to a recent study about fast depletion of existing hydrocarbon reservoirs in the country, the existing deposits would further deplete by 60 per cent by the year 2027, which stressed the need for accelerating exploration activities in potential areas on war-footing.