NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India aims to auction its remaining 1 million square kilometers (387,000 sq miles) of potential exploration areas in the next two to three years, buoyed by recent oil and gas discoveries, the upstream regulator said on Thursday. It recently launched its biggest-ever exploration round, offering 70 blocks as it expects companies to seize the opportunity to strike good bargains because of the economic slowdown. The discoveries, and their development, will prove useful as India imports over 70 percent of the crude it consumes and demand is expected to rise further as the economy recovers. The country has so far allotted 68 percent of its 3.14 million sq km of area for exploration to various companies. Foreign oil firms including Anadarko Petroleum (APC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), South Korea's Samsung and Noble Energy (NBL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) had indicated interest in the latest round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), Director General (Hydrocarbons) V.K. Sibal told the Reuters Energy Summit in New Delhi. "For big firms, the credit squeeze and downturn is not a problem, rather this is the best time to avail prospective acreage at cheaper rates," he said. Out of the country's 26 sedimentary basins, exploration works have been initiated in just 15 basins. "Our country holds about 205 billion barrels of hydrocarbon resources. Of this, 138 billion barrels are yet to be found, and the remaining has been established on the basis of drilling work done," Sibal said. However, he said the numbers are based on limited exploration work done in the country. "These numbers are based on the scanty data, based on scanty wells that we have drilled, because in some places exploration activity is yet to begin and in many places it is very low," he said. "In the east coast alone, our drilling density is 0.6-0.7 well per thousand square kilometers." ATTRACTING INVESTORS Only 20 percent of India's sedimentary area is well explored, 15 percent are poorly explored and exploration work has been initiated in 44 percent of the area. India's east coast, where Reliance Industries (RELI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has found huge gas reserves, alone holds as much as 200 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas resources, Sibal said. "These are very early numbers as India's east coast was opened for exploration in the first round of NELP," he added.

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