Lok Sabha Question No. 2644 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-03-14
Subject: Exploration of Oil and Gas
Ministry: PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS
Asked by: VIRENDRA  KUMAR, SONA RAM CHOUDHARY, ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY, ADVOCATE NARENDRA KESHAV SAWAIKAR, NANDI YELLAIAH

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2644

## TO BE ANSWERED ON 14 th  MARCH, 2016

## EXPLORATION OF OIL AND GAS

## 2644.     DR. VIRENDRA KUMAR:

COL. SONARAM CHOUDHARY:

SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY:

ADV. NARENDRA KESHAV SAWAIKAR:

SHRI NANDI YELLAIAH:

पेट्रोलियम और प्राक ृ लिक गैस मंत्री

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

- (a)  whether  the  Government  proposes  to  provide  concession  to  companies  for  promoting exploration of oil and natural gas in the country and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether the country is lagging behind in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas as compared to other developed/developing countries and if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;
- (c)      whether  the  Government  and  its  controlled  committee  approved  several  investments pertaining to oil and gas exploration and if so, the details thereof along with foreign exchange amount likely to be reduced on this move;
- (d)  The details of survey conducted/proposed to be conducted by public/private companies including  Oil  and  Natural  Gas  Corporation  Limited  and  Oil  India  Limited  and  number  of hydrocarbon blocks awarded for exploration of oil and gas along with status of commercial production  and  quantum  of  crude  oil/gas  produced  from  these  blocks  State/company/oil block-wise;
- (e) the details of stalled projects in the petroleum sector along with the reasons for delay and the steps taken by the Government to fast-track the stalled projects; and
- (f)  the  steps  taken  to  formulate  a  transparent  oil  and  gas  exploration  policy  and  provide energy to end users at an affordable price?

## ANSWER

पेट्रोलियम और प्राक ृ लिक गैस मंत्रािय में राज्य मंत्री ( प्राार रन्त्िवत्र ( ) प्रााप्र ामेवध ीी )

## MINISTER OF STATE (I/C) IN THE MINISTRY OF PETROLEUM & NATURAL GAS (SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)

- (a)  Government  takes  various  policy  &  administrative  initiatives  to  facilitate  hydrocarbon exploration in the country. Some of the policy decisions taken by the Government in recent years to enhance Exploration and Production (E&P) activities can be brought out as:
- i. Policy to grant relaxation,  extension & classifications at development & production stage for early monetization of hydrocarbon discoveries.
- ii. Discovered Small Field Policy.
- iii. Unified Licensing Policy- new Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing  policy.
- iv. Policy for Grant of Extension to small & medium sized discovered fields.
- v. Policy for marketing freedom for gas produced from Deepwater & Ultra Deepwater areas.

(b)  The  level  of  exploration  and  production  activities  depend  on  various  factors  including prospectivity of a region.

(c) Exploration blocks are awarded through International Competitive Bidding process in a transparent manner based on the quantified Bid Evaluation Criteria. Investment decisions are taken  by  the  contracts  keeping  in  view  the  provisions  in  the  Production  Sharing  Contract signed with the Government.

(d) The details of exploratory work carried out by ONGC, OIL and Pvt. JV companies since inception are as under:-

| Company                                       |   2D(Line- Kilometer) |   3D (Square- Kilometer) |
|-----------------------------------------------|-----------------------|--------------------------|
| OIL- Nomination                               |       73948.7         |                  14248.7 |
| ONGC- Nomination                              |      882316           |                 112376   |
| Pvt JV (including ONGC/OIL)- Under PSC regime |      375116           |                 282310   |
| Total                                         |           1.33138e+06 |                 408935   |

Under PSC regime, 282 exploration blocks have been awarded for exploration of oil and gas so far. Production of Oil /Gas has commenced in 6 nos. of Pre-NELP exploration blocks and 11 nos. of NELP blocks.

The details of production of crude oil/gas from the hydrocarbon blocks awarded for exploration are at Annexure-I.

- (e)  The  Ministry  is  monitoring  projects  costing  Rs  100  crore  and  above.  Out  of  these  at present, the following projects are reported to be stalled/kept on hold:
1. GAIL: Kochi-Koottanad-Bangalore-Mangalore Pipeline Phase-II: The matter is sub-judice at Supreme Court of India.
2. IOCL CBR-Trichy Pipeline: On hold as a direct fall out of above mentioned court case.
3.  IOCL  Ennore-Trichhy-Madurai  LPG  Pipeline:  On  hold  as  a  direct  fall  out  of  above mentioned court case.
4.  GAIL: Surat Paradip Pipeline Project: Due to delay in development of Gas sources and absence of anchor gas customer along the pipeline route.
- (f) The Government has formulated a new Hydrocarbon Exploration & Licensing Policy.

The  prices  of  Petrol  and  Diesel  have  been  made  market  determined  by  the  Government effective  with  26 th June,  2010  and  19 th October,  2014  respectively.  Since  then,  the  Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) take appropriate decision on pricing of Petrol and Diesel in line with their international prices and other market conditions.

In  order  to  protect  the  consumers  from  the  fluctuations  in  the  prices  in  the  international market,  the  Government  continues  to  modulate  the  Retail  Selling  Price  of  Subsidized domestic LPG and PDS Kerosene and their basic prices have not been revised after 25 th June, 2011.

********

## Annexure of LS USQ 2644 to be answered on 14.03.2016

## Annexure-I

|               |                   |           |                                                    |                                    | Cumulative Production since Inception till February, 2016 from Exploration blocks awarded Under PSC regime   | Cumulative Production since Inception till February, 2016 from Exploration blocks awarded Under PSC regime   |
|---------------|-------------------|-----------|----------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Bidding Round | Exploration Block | State     | Operator                                           | Year of Commencement of Production | Oil+ Condensate (TMT)                                                                                        | GAS (MSCM)                                                                                                   |
| NELP          | CB-ONN- 2000/2    | Gujarat   | Niko Resource Limited                              | 2003-04                            | 0                                                                                                            | 692560.74                                                                                                    |
| NELP          | CB-ONN- 2000/1    | Gujarat   | Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Limited (GSPC) | 2007-08                            | 331.83                                                                                                       | 9161.02                                                                                                      |
| NELP          | KG-DWN-98/3       | Offshore  | Reliance Industries Limited                        | 2008-09                            | 3520.24                                                                                                      | 73874317.71                                                                                                  |
| NELP          | CB-ONN- 2002/3    | Gujarat   | GSPC                                               | 2012-13                            | 0.49                                                                                                         | 0                                                                                                            |
| NELP          | CB-ONN- 2003/2    | Gujarat   | GSPC                                               | 2012-13                            | 4.88                                                                                                         | 194.2                                                                                                        |
| NELP          | KG-OSN- 2001/3    | Offshore  | GSPC                                               | 2012-13                            | 6.94                                                                                                         | 240416.8                                                                                                     |
| NELP          | CB-ONN- 2002/1    | Gujarat   | ONGC                                               | 2013-14                            | 0.13                                                                                                         | 0                                                                                                            |
| NELP          | CB-ONN- 2004/1    | Gujarat   | ONGC                                               | 2014-15                            | 0.83                                                                                                         | 0                                                                                                            |
| NELP          | CB-ONN- 2004/2    | Gujarat   | ONGC                                               | 2014-15                            | 1                                                                                                            | 0                                                                                                            |
| NELP          | CB-ONN- 2001/1    | Gujarat   | ONGC                                               | 2015-16                            | 0.67                                                                                                         | 0                                                                                                            |
| NELP          | CY-ONN- 2002/2    | Tamilnadu | ONGC                                               | 2015-16                            | 5.66                                                                                                         | 500.45                                                                                                       |
| Pre-NELP      | CB-OS/2           | Gujarat   | Tata Petrodyne Limited                             | 2002-03                            | 3118.1                                                                                                       | 6592525.57                                                                                                   |
| Pre-NELP      | CB-ON/7           | Gujarat   | Hindustan Oil Exploration Company                  | 2004-05                            | 112.86                                                                                                       | 8701.06                                                                                                      |
| Pre-NELP      | RJ-ON-90/1        | Rajasthan | Cairn Energy Limited                               | 2006-07                            | 46656.13                                                                                                     | 2736993.81                                                                                                   |
| Pre-NELP      | CB-ON/3           | Gujarat   | Essar Oil Limited                                  | 2007-08                            | 12.6                                                                                                         | 437.23                                                                                                       |
| Pre-NELP      | CB-ON/2           | Gujarat   | GSPC                                               | 2009-10                            | 44.06                                                                                                        | 33640.64                                                                                                     |
| Pre-NELP      | RJ-ON/6           | Rajasthan | Focus Energy Limited                               | 2010-11                            | 10.63                                                                                                        | 1148967.82                                                                                                   |
|               |                   |           |                                                    |                                    | 53827.04                                                                                                     | 85338417.06                                                                                                  |