Question : Oil Exploration at Cochin High

(a) the details of surveys conducted by public/private sector companies for exploration of oil and natural gas deposits/blocks in the country including Cochin High during the last three years and the current year along with number of such oil and gas blocks discovered and explored and present status of oil explorations so far including funds spent by companies, State/UT/company/block-wise including Cochin High.
(b) whether the work of geological and oceanic survey for exploring oil and gas deposits in the country including Bay of Bengal is being carried out at the desired place and if so, the details thereof along with the corrective measures taken by the Government in this regard;
(c) whether the Government is dependent on certain private and foreign companies for exploration of oil and natural gas in the country and if so, the details thereof along with details of oil and gas blocks explored by these companies in the country during the said period and number of such blocks allocated to public/private/foreign companies, block/company-wise;
(d) the details of revenue and profit earned by the Government by the exploration of oil and natural gas during the said period in the country; and
(e) whether the Government proposes to establish oil based industry through public private partnership in the country and if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER IN THE MINISTRY OF PETROLEUM & NATURAL GAS
(SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN )
(a) & (b): The details of exploratory surveys conducted by public/private sector companies for exploration of oil and natural gas in the country during the last three years ( 2014-15 to 2016-17) and the current year 2017-18 are given below:-
Year
2D Survey LKM
3D Survey SKM
2014-15
6135
13347
2015-16
7816
6236
2016-17
19241
13648
2017-18 (P)
841
2014
Total
34032
35245
At present there is no active acreage in the Cochin High area of Kerala Konkan Offshore Basin, therefore, no exploratory activity has been carried out during last three years and in current year.
State-wise/Area-wise details of surveys carried out by various companies, expenditure made thereon and discoveries made are at Annexure-1.
(c) &(d): Government of India, in October, 2016 has launched National Seismic Programme (NSP) which aims to undertake an appraisal of sedimentary basins across India, especially where no/scanty data is available in order to have a better understanding of the hydrocarbon prospectivity. Under this programme Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Limited has been entrusted to carry out 40835 LKM of 2D seismic data acquisition, processing & interpretation (API) in 22 onland Indian Sedimentary basins in 18 States and Union Territories. Oil India Limited (OIL) has been entrusted to carry out 7408 LKM of 2D seismic data acquisition, processing & interpretation (API) in the North-Eastern States. Up to 31.01.2018 total 16447 LKM of 2D survey have been carried out under National Seismic Survey Program.
The details of total royalty, cess and profit petroleum paid by ONGC/OIL/Pvt JV companies in last three years and the current year in nomination and Production Sharing Regime blocks are as under:-
(Rs. in Crores)
Royalty
Cess
Profit Petroleum
ONGC (Nomination)
12563
29353
Not Applicable (NA)
OIL (Nomination)
NA
5191
NA
PSC
13739
12308
20532
(e): Under the existing policy framework, oil and gas exploration and exploitation activities are carried out by both Private and Public companies either independently of their own or as joint venture consortium in partnership.
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