Question : Oil and Gas Exploration- Extraction

(a) the details of private/public sector companies including Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL) involved in exploration and production of oil and gas along with oil and gas explored and produced by them including Konkan, Cochin High, Badmer/Sanchore region during the last three years and expenditure incurred on exploration of such oil/gas wells, States/UT/company/ project-wise including Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu;
(b) the details of survey conducted/ proposed to be conducted and oil and gas fields discovered by public/private sector companies including ONGC and OIL and number of hydrocarbon blocks awarded along with quantum of crude oil /gas produced from these blocks, State/UT/company/oil field-wise;
(c) whether the Government has approved a new Hydrocarbon Policy and if so, the salient features of the same and the time by which the next round of bidding for oil and gas blocks is likely to be auctioned;
(d) the details of crude oil and gas reserves and oil wells/fields available in the country along with the percentage of crude oil and gas produced by ONGC and their share in production of oil/gas as compared to international average as on date, company/oil field-wise;
(e) whether Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) is carrying out oil exploration work in certain areas of the country and if so, the details thereof along with crude oil produced by them indicating the average cost of production during the said period; and
(f) whether the indigenously produced crude oil is sold to oil refineries at par with the cost of imported oil and if so, the details thereof?
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Answer given by the minister

(a) During last three years, crude oil & natural gas production, reserves accretion and exploration and production expenditure made by Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Limited; Oil India Limited (OIL) and Private/JV companies are at Annexure-I, II and III respectively.
(b) The details of survey conducted/proposed to be conducted by ONGC, OIL and Private/JV companies are at Annexure-IV, V and VI respectively.
(c) Government has approved Hydrocarbon and Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP) coupled with Open Acreage Licensing Policy and same has been notified on 30th March 2016. This policy provides for a uniform licensing system to explore and produce all hydrocarbons such as oil, gas, coal bed methane, shale oil/gas, etc. under a single licensing framework. Policy also provides many incentives such as reduced royalty rates for offshore blocks, marketing & pricing freedom and easy to administer revenue sharing model. On completion of preparatory work by DGH, exploration blocks under HELP is likely to be offered.
(d) The share of ONGC in Balance Hydrocarbon reserves is about 52.7% of total hydrocarbon reserves of 1888 Million Metric Tonne of Oil Equivalent (MMToe). During 2015-16, crude oil production by ONGC is about 22.368 Million Metric Tonne(MMT), which is 60.5% of the total crude oil production in the country. The share of ONGC in natural gas production is about 65.6% of the domestic natural gas production of 32.249 Billion Cubic Meter (BCM). The reserve to production (R/P) ratio for oil and gas in the country is about 17.6 years and 45 years respectively as per BP Statistics-2015. Globally, R/P ratio for crude oil is ranging from 2.8 to 89 years while R/P ratio in case of natural gas varies from 5.7 to 78.2 years (Source BP-Statistics).
(e) Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) has been awarded 21 exploration blocks (Two Block as Operator, 19 Blocks as Non-Operator). All these blocks are at exploration stage and no crude oil & natural gas production has commenced till date.
(f) As per the Crude Oil Sales Agreement (COSA) entered into between the PSU upstream companies and refineries/OMCs, the price of indigenous crude is benchmarked to the international market price of equivalent crude oil.
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