Question : EXPLORATION OF OIL AND GAS

(a) whether the country Is lagging behind in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas as compared to the other developed/developing countries and if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;

(b) the details of survey conducted/proposed to be conducted by public/private sector companies including Oi! and Natural Gas Corporation for exploration of oil and gas blocks in the country and the investment made/being made for the purpose, State-wise;

(c) whether several globai companies have shown interest in investing in India’s oil and gas sector for exploration of oil and gas blocks in the country;

(d) If so, the details thereof, including agreement signed or likely to be signed in this regard with various countries for the purpose, country-wise; and

(e) the efforts made/being made by the Government to augment the petroleum products including oil and gas indigenously and to save huge amount of foreign exchange incurred on import bill?

MINISTER OF STATE OF THE MINISTRY OF PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS(SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN):

(a) : No madam.

(b) : The State-wise details of seismic survey carried out by GNGG, OIL and Private/Joint Venture companies along with expenditure made thereon are given in the enclosed statement-I , II and III respectively. The 12th Plan projections of survey and expenditure are as under:

ONGC OIL Private/JV Total 2D Survey

(LKM) 28,170 6,850 1,03,954 1,38,974 3D Survey

(SKM) 24,163 8,364 49,961 82,488

The envisaged expenditure on survey by ONGC and OIL are Rs. 5913 crore and Rs.2355 crore respectively.

(c) and (d):The Government has so far awarded 282 exploration blocks(28 under Pre-NELP and 254 under NELP-IX bidding rounds) under the PSC regime through International competitive Bidding process to PSUs, Private and Foreign Companies. So far, a total of 48 exploration blocks have been awarded to 18 Foreign companies as Operators for which PSC have been signed in addition, there are 18 Foreign Companies as Non-operators who have also signed the PSCs as Consortium Partners with PSUs or Private/other Foreign Companies. The details of exploration blocks awarded to Foreign Companies as Operators are given in the enclosed statement.

(e) In order to accelerate the pace of exploration and production of oil and gas in the country, the Government has taken various steps inluding:

- Offer of exploration blocks through NELP bidding rounds. -Encouragement of exploration and exploitation of alternate energy sources such as Coal Bed Methane (CBM). -Policyfor exploration and exploitation of Shale Gas/Shale Oil resources by NOCs under the Nomination Regime. -Policy on Non-exclusive Multi-Client Speculative survey for assessment of unexplored sedimentary basin. -Identification of new blocks for Exploration and Production.