Lok Sabha Question No. 2793 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-12-12
Subject: Investment in Exploration Projects
Ministry: PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS
Asked by: Shri Bhartruhari Mahtab, Shri Vijay Kumar Dubey, Shri Janardan Mishra, Shri Chavda Vinod Lakhamshi

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2793 TO BE ANSWERED ON 12 th  DECEMBER, 2024

## Investment in Exploration Projects

2793:

Shri Bhartruhari Mahtab:

Shri Vijay Kumar Dubey:

Shri Janardan Mishra:

Shri Chavda Vinod Lakhamshi:

## पेट Ō ोिलयम एवं Ůाक ृ ितक गैस मंũी

Will the Minister of PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS be pleased to state:

- (a)  the steps taken/being taken by the Government to facilitate investments in exploration of major offshore oil deposits;
- (b) whether such investments by the private companies would help in reducing oil dependency and if so, the details thereof; and
- (c)  whether the total area opened by the Government for exploration activities was previously under 'no-go area' and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## पेट Ō ोिलयम एवं Ůाक ृ ितक गैस मंũालय मŐ राǛ मंũी ( ŵी सुरे श गोपी )

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PETROELUM & NATURAL GAS

## (SHRI SURESH GOPI)

(a) & (b): The Government has taken various policy initiatives to facilitate investment in exploration of major offshore oil reserves, increase hydrocarbon production and reduce dependence which interalia include:

- i. Notification of Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP) on 30 th March 2016 for the  award  of  exploration  acreages  to  boost  the  Indian  Exploration  &  Production  (E&P) Sector.  This  year  also  marked  the  landmark  shift  from  Production  Sharing  mechanism  to Revenue Sharing mechanism.
- ii. The  Government  introduced  the  Discovered  small  field  policy  in  2015  for  awarding discovered acreages and enable monetization of unmonetized discoveries of Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Limited and Oil India Limited (OIL).
- iii. Government notified policies in 2016 and 2017 for marketing including pricing freedom for the  gas  produced  from  Deepwater,  ultra  deepwater  and  High  Pressure-High  Temperature areas subject to a ceiling price on the basis of landed price of alternate fuels.
- iv. The Government deregulated the sale of domestically produced crude oil in July, 2022.
- v. Government further notified the policy  reforms on 28 th February  2019  to  promote  Ease  of Doing Business and incentivize production. (Revenue Share from Category II & III type of

basins  were  removed  except  in  case  of  windfall  gains,  7-year  Royalty  Holiday  and concessional  Royalty  Rates  for  Deep  &  Ultra-deep  blocks,  fiscal  incentives  for  early monetization of fields as well as Marketing and Pricing freedom for natural gas)

- vi. Under the Open Acreage Licensing Program (OALP) under HELP, till date eight OALP bid rounds  have  concluded  and  144  exploration  blocks  have  been  awarded  for  E&P  activities with a total anticipated investment of 3.37 billion USD. In OALP Bid Round-IX, out of 28 blocks offered, 19 blocks are in offshore area covering an area of around 1,22,721 Sq. Km. (SKM).
- vii. Government is also spending substantially on acquisition of vital seismic data for appraisal of offshore sedimentary basins such as Andaman and India's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and  drilling  of  stratigraphic  wells  to  make  quality  data  of  Indian  Sedimentary  Basins available to bidders. Beyond  the  current  EEZ  boundary,  Government  has  approved acquisition of 30,000 LKM of seismic data in the Extended Continental Shelf (ECS) of India.
- viii. Setting up of National Data Repository, 2017.
- ix. In  2022,  Government  of  India  released  about  1  million  SKM  'No-Go'  area  (which  was previously prohibited for E&P operations) in offshore areas for new exploration.
- x. Policy to Promote and Incentivize Enhanced Recovery Methods for Oil and Gas, 2018.
- xi. In  June  2020,  Government  allowed  monetization  of  early  stage  discovery  during  the Exploration  period  itself  to  help  reduce  the  full  gestation  period  of  the  project  and  enable investors to start earning revenues at an early stage.
- xii. In November 2021, Government allowed monetization of ad-hoc and test gas making such gas that would have been flared available to the market.
- xiii. Expediting approval processes for oil and gas blocks through online portals and implementation of several processes on self-certification basis.

Oil and gas exploration and production projects are high risk, capital and technology intensive. India has 26 sedimentary basins. Government  has undertaken various measures to appraise the unappraised  sedimentary  basins  area  which  include  Hydrocarbon  Reassessment  Survey,  National Seismic Programme etc. Oil and gas exploration is carried out by companies in the public sector and private  sector  both.  Exploration  and  production  companies,  including  international  oil  companies, can contribute to the capital and technology required for projects to fulfill the energy requirement of the country.

(c): The 'No-Go' area, which was prohibited for E&P operations, has now been reduced to 24,832 SKM  from  1,366,708  SKM,  thereby  opening  of  up  to  ~99%  of  erstwhile  'No-Go'  area  for exploration activities.

These areas lie off the coast of India in the Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea.

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