India invited bids on Thursday for 24 exploration blocks under the fourth round of its New Exploration Licensing Policy.

It is offering 11 blocks in deep-sea regions, one in shallow water and 12 onland blocks under the NELP, a key plank of its liberalisation programme. The bids will close on September 30.

The blocks on offer include one in the prospective Krishna-Godavari basin in the Bay of Bengal, where Reliance Industries found a large field with estimated reserves of 14.5 trillion cubic feet of gas last year.

Global oil majors did not bid in the previous NELP rounds but Naik said he expected them to participate in the fourth round.

He said the government would award the blocks by December 31.

The government will set up data centres at New Delhi, Houston and London for detailed information about the blocks, he said.

He said so far nine discoveries with initial estimates of more than 300 million tonnes of hydrocarbons had been reported from blocks offered in the previous rounds of the NELP.

"With the implementation of an aggressive exploration programme under NELP, more and more discoveries are expected to be made in the future," he said.