Addressing the economic editor's conference here on Friday, minister for petroleum and natural gas V K Ramamurthy said global tenders would be floated shortly for the 48 identified blocks -- 26 in shallow water, 12 onshore and 10 offshore.

The government has almost finalised the tax code for the hydrocarbon sector and would be announcing it soon to facilitate the bidding process.Ramamurthy said the ministry was proposing to hold roadshows in various countries during October and November. He hoped to finalise the contracts within the current year.

The minister, earlier in his opening remarks, had said, "efforts to co-opt the private sector have been on since 1980, though not fruitful enough." He added that to encourage private sector involvement under the new policy, hydrocarbon sector has been accorded the infrastructure status with aseven-year tax holiday. Production sharing contracts, he said, was a feature of the NELP.

As far as crude production was concerned, he said, efforts were being made to increase output by three to five per cent from the existing wells through adoption of new technologies. The aim, he said, was to increase the total crude production by 12 per cent before the end of the century.

He further said the new exploration policy would invite foreign and indigenous participation to harness coal bed methane for energy use with complete freedom to market the product in the domestic sector.

The minister added that actual work on the contracts signed in July and August would begin after the monsoons. For increasing output, he said the ministry was pinning its hope of deep sea exploration.

The minister added that the other focus would be on acquisition of oil/gas producing properties in West Asia and Central Asia, Kazakhistan and USA to augment indigenous oil production. Import of natural gas from West Asia was alsobeing considered. For this, he said, LNG import facilities were being set up in different locations through a joint venture company Petronet LNG Ltd.

Referring to the refinery sector, he said the total refining capacity would go up to 67.55 million tonne with the setting up of the Panipat refinery and expansion of the existing ones.