Petroleum & Natural Gas

India has 26 sedimentary basins covering an area of 3.14 Million Sq Km spread over onshore, shallow water and deep water. An area of about 1.502 Million Sq. Km i.e. 48 per cent of total sedimentary basin area does not have adequate geo-scientific data.

As a base to launch future Exploration and Production (E&P) activities, appraisal of all un-appraised areas has been approved and would be instrumental in increasing investments in domestic production of oil and gas. The project is being implemented by Oil India Limited (OIL) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) at an estimated cost of `2932.99 crore.

India, which is second largest refiner in Asia after China, is emerging as a refinery hub with refining capacity exceeding demand. Government has envisaged developing an additional 15,000 km long pipeline network to have an ecosystem of National Gas Grid in the country.

Exploration & Production

Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP)

The policy envisages single license for exploration and production of conventional as well as non-conventional hydrocarbon resources, open acreage licensing system to select the exploration blocks without waiting for formal bid round, simply and easy to administer revenue sharing model. The National Data Repository has been developed to support the process by providing quality data on the prospectivity of the basins to investors.

The salient features are:

• Single License for exploration and production of conventional as well as non-conventional hydrocarbon resources;
• Open Acreage Policy– option to select the exploration blocks without waiting for formal bid round
• Revenue Sharing Model – simple, easy to administer – no cost recovery – no micromanagement by the Government – operational freedom to the operator
• Pricing and Marketing Freedom – a major incentive for investment

Discovered Small Field Policy

• The Union Cabinet approved 69 marginal fields for offer under Discovered Small Fields Policy.Out of these, 67 Discovered Small Fields were clubbed into 46 contract areas and put on offer.
• Based on the success of DSF Bid Round-I, DGH has further identified 60 un-monetised discoveries / fields of ONGC and OIL in nomination regime and relinquished blocks of PSC regime.

Survey of un-appraised Areas of Sedimentary Basins of India

• To generate seismic data for initiating Exploration and Production (E&P) activities, Government prepared a Project to conduct 2D seismic surveys of all sedimentary basins of India.
• The estimated cost of the project is Rs. 2932.99 Crore.
• Project will be completed by 2019-20. As on date 31.10.2017, 2D seismic survey of 10,200.54 LKM has been carried out.
• Out of this ONGC has conducted survey of 1902.68 LKM and OIL has conducted survey of 697.86 LKM.

National Data Repository (NDR)

NDR has been set up at DGH to make the entire E&P data available for commercial exploration, research and development and academic purposes.This has been launched on 28.6.2017.

Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 for North East India

• In tune with the Government of India’s Act East Policy, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has prepared a Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 for the north east India which was released on 9th February, 2016 in Guwahati.
• The Vision aims at doubling Oil & Gas production by 2030, making clean fuels accessible, fast tracking projects, generating employment opportunities and promoting cooperation with neighbouring countries.
• These synchronized goals and action plans emanate from the Vision to develop North East Region as a dominant hydrocarbon hub at the forefront of India’s energy economy and a step towards realizing our Prime Minister’s vision to develop the North East India in a mission mode.
• The Vision rests on five pillars: People, Policy, Partnership, Projects and Production.
• The document, not only envisages doubling the oil and gas production, but it also chalks out an action plan to double the availability of petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and LPG by the year 2030.
• It proposes for expansion of Guwahati, Bongaigaon and Numaligarh refineries, establishment of bio-refinery at Numaligarh and development of network of natural gas, POL and LPG pipelines in the state.

Petroleum and Natural Gas Sector: Government’s Interventions

The Government has taken various measures to transform hydrocarbon sector in India as follows.

Pratyaksha Hanstantrit Labh (PAHAL)

Government, as a measure of Good Governance has introduced well targeted system of subsidy delivery to LPG consumers through PAHAL. The initiative of the Government was aimed at rationalizing subsidies based on approach to cut subsidy leakages, but not subsidies themselves. Since 2014-15, more than 17.5 crore LPG consumers have joined PAHAL scheme. PAHAL has entered into Guinness Book of World Records being largest Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme. So far, more than R50,000 crore have been transferred directly into the bank accounts of the consumers. Estimated savings in subsidy due to implementation of PAHAL during 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 is nearly ` 29446 crore.

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (LPG Connections for BPL Houses)

The Government has embarked upon providing 5 crore LPG connections to BPL families in the country with focus on States/UTs having LPG coverage less than the National average of 61% as on 01.01.2016 with this scheme. The connections are released in the name of adult woman member of BPL family having no LPG connection either in the name of beneficiary or any other family members. Objective of the scheme is to provide clean cooking fuel solution to poor households, especially in rural areas. A target of 1.5 crore was fixed for the financial year 2016-17 and the connections released as on 31.03.2017 have surpassed the target at 1.98 crore.