Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Puri has made a significant claim regarding crude oil reserves and stated that India is on the verge of discovering a transformational oil reserve in the Andaman Sea. He compared it with the massive discovery made by the Hess Corporation and CNOOC in Guyana. In terms of oil reserves, Guyana ranks 17th in the world.
The Union Minister, speaking to The New Indian, also traced the policy shift to a post-2016 period of renewed intent and strategy.
“See, the point is that between 02/2016, we didn’t do anything. And then after that, we started changing policies. We moved from production sharing to revenue sharing arrangement,” he said, as quoted by The New Indian.
Puri also added that under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP), India had unlocked vast sedimentary basins. He said that we have opened up 1,000,000 square kilometers out of the 3,500,000 square kilometers of sedimentary basin.
“37–38% of the bids in OALP Round 9 came in that 1 million square kilometers. I think about 80% of the bids which will come in the next round will come there,” Puri said.
Speaking on the aspect of investment, Puri pointed to the global parallels and ONGC’s recent efforts. In FY24, ONGC drilled a total of 541 wells. It is the highest in the past 34 years. He also acknowledged the traditional reluctance of leadership in the oil marketing companies (OMCs) to invest in long-term exploration:
Puri also discussed the Oil Fields Regulation and Development Amendment Bill that he tabled this year. The new bill, according to him, resolves this overlap and aims to bring certainty and predictability. It also clarifies that the newer fuels and some of the practices that the executive could indulge in will not be possible anymore, he added.
