The government on Friday awarded 20 oil and gas blocks for exploration and production -- 14 of which went to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and its partners.

It also awarded eight coal bed methane blocks. ONGC and partners bagged five, while Reliance Industries Ltd clinched the remaining three.

The Centre also signed licence agreements with ONGC for five deep sea oil and gas blocks on the east and west coasts, and with Reliance for one deep water block in the Bay of Bengal.

The ONGC-HPCL combine signed agreements for two blocks in Kerala-Konkan basin and ONGC, Oil India and BPCL consortium inked agreements for one each in KG and Mahanadi basins.

The Oil India and ONGC combine got two onland oil and gas blocks in Assam and one in Rajasthan. The ONGC-BPCL team got a block in Tamil Nadu.

Gail and its partners got two - one in Assam and another in Tamil Nadu.

The methane blocks awarded have a base of 425 billion cubic meter of gas which can produce 9.5 million standard cubic meters of gas per day in three years.