Government of India had launched the seventh round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-VII) on 13.12.2007 offering 57 exploration blocks covering a sedimentary basins area of about 1.71 lakh Sq. Km. including 19 deep water blocks, 9 shallow water blocks and 29 onland blocks.
The salient features of NELP-VII were as under:
(i) Introduction of a new Type for on-land small sized blocks (Type-S: blocks with area of less than 200 sq.Km ).
(ii) Technical capability for on-land and shallow water blocks was made a prequalification criterion while for Type-S blocks it was dispensed with. For deepwater blocks, technical capability of the operator was given due consideration/weightage for bid evaluation.
(iii) Introduction of consortium/partnership as a new sub-parameter in technical capability in NELP-VII for deepwater blocks only.
(iv) Fiscal Package Parameter - Government share of profit petroleum was biddable against two tranches of Pre tax Investment Multiple (PTIM), i.e "up to 1.500" and "3.500 & above".