Kolkata, Sep 19 (IANS): Revenue of about $15.3 billion is expected to be generated in 20 years from 25 contract areas covering 59 oil and gas fields that have been discovered, an official said here on Wednesday.

The Centre launched the bid round II under Discovered Small Fields (DSF) policy last month.

Under this bid round, there are 25 contract areas covering 59 discovered oil and gas fields spread over 3,000 sq km, with a prospective resource base of over 190 million tonnes, said V.P. Joy, Director General, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons.

"The total expected revenue is $15.3 billion for 20 years. As compared with the previous one, each contract area is bigger. We are estimating at least $1.2 billion of investments in this round," he said.

Out of these contract areas, six are in the northeastern region, four in Andhra Pradesh and one in Mahanadi offshore.

"We hope to award the contracts from January 2019 and the production is expected by mid-2022 from these fields," he said.

The ongoing bidding under DSF round II will continue till December 18, he said at an investor meet that saw 100 participants from exploration and production companies, service providers, investors, entrepreneurs and others.

Under the DSF bid round-I, 1,500 sq km of area was offered with a total estimated reserve of 90 million tonnes, Joy said, adding that total expected revenue in the next 20 years was $6.5 billion.

"In the first batch, 30 contracts were awarded, and so far, 24 petroleum mining lease have been transferred. As many as 12 field development plans were approved. The expected investment will be around $500 million," he said.