Question : Shortage of Petroleum Products

(a) whether the Government has formulated a long term strategy to meet the shortage of petroleum products including natural gas and if so, the details thereof along with the steps taken by the Government in this regard;
(b) whether the Government proposes to formulate new policy for development of shale gas in the country and if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether public sector companies have invested in shale gas producing foreign companies and if so, the details thereof; and
(d) whether the Government has signed any bilateral agreements for joint development and sharing of technology for shale gas development and if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER IN THE MINISTRY OF PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS
(SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)
(a) The policy initiatives taken by the Government to enhance domestic production of oil and gas include:-
(i) Policy for Relaxations, Extensions and clarifications under Production Sharing Contract (PSC) regime for early monetization of hydrocarbon Discoveries, 2014.
(ii) Policy on Testing Requirements, 2015.
(iii) Discovered Small Field Policy, 2015.
(iv) Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy, 2016.
(v) Policy for Extension of Production Sharing Contracts, 2016 and 2017.
(vi) Policy for early monetization of Coal Bed Methane.
(vii) Setting up of National Data Repository, 2017.
(viii) Appraisal of Unappraised areas in Sedimentary Basins.
(ix) Re-assessment of Hydrocarbon Resources.
(x) Streamlining the working of Production Sharing Contracts in Pre-NELP and NELP Blocks, 2018.
The steps taken by the Government to achieve the goal of reducing the dependency on import in energy from oil and gas include:
(i) Increasing domestic production of oil and gas;
(ii) Promoting energy efficiency and conservation measures;
(iii) Giving thrust on demand substitution;
(iv) Capitalizing untapped potential in bio-fuels and other alternate fuels/renewable and;
(v) Implementing measures for refinery process improvements.
(b) In order to exploit shale gas & Oil in the country, Government of India on 14th October, 2013 announced the Policy Guidelines for Exploration and Exploitation of Shale Gas and Oil by National Oil Companies, i.e. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Limited and Oil India Limited (OIL)) in their onland Petroleum Exploration License (PEL) / Petroleum Mining Lease (PML) areas awarded under the nomination regimes. Government of India has approved Discovered Small Field Policy in 2015 and Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP) in 2016 which enable the contractor to explore and exploit all types of hydrocarbon resources including shale oil/gas. Review and formulation of policies for enhancement of oil/gas production in the country is a continuous process.
(c) Indian Public Sector Oil and Gas companies, till February 2018, have acquired stakes in 27 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Myanmar, Namibia, Russia, South Sudan, USA, UAE, Venezuela and Vietnam with cumulative investment of about US$33.8 billion for exploitation of hydrocarbon including shale oil/gas.
(d) A Memorandum of Understanding was signed on 6th November, 2010 with USA in the area of knowledge exchange and expertise concerning Shale Gas resource characterization and assessment in India.
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