India’s E&P sector to offer $100 bn investment opportunity by 2030: Puri

New Delhi: India's oil and gas exploration and production sector will offer investment opportunities worth $100 billion by the end of this decade, said the Union minister for petroleum and natural gas Hardeep Singh Puri.

Addressing the inaugural session of first edition of 'Urja Varta' on Thursday, he said a large portion of India’s 26 sedimentary basins, containing substantial reserves of crude oil and natural gas, is yet to be fully tapped.

“Only 10% of our sedimentary basin area is under exploration today. After the award of blocks under the forthcoming Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) rounds, it will increase to 16% by end-2024,” Puri said.

Highlighting the need to streamlining operational and regulatory processes, Puri said: “The government is doing its part to catalyse investments in E&P. The ministry of petroleum and natural gas has instituted sweeping reforms, empowering stakeholders to contribute to our nation's progress”, he added. 

The minister reiterated the government's target to increase India's exploration acreage to 1 million square kilometres by 2030.

He said that through the first eight OALP bid rounds, a total of 144 blocks covering around 244,007 sq km have been awarded. The recently announced OALP IX round offers an area of approximately 136,596 sq km spread over eight sedimentary basins, with the vision of expanding the nation's footprint in offshore exploration, Puri said.

Talking on the discovered small field policy, which was introduced in 2015, he said that small fields have attracted investments worth around $2 billion with 29 new players venturing into the space.

The petroleum minister also said that an investment of ₹7,500 crore is going into the acquisition of new seismic data, financing stratigraphic wells, and acquiring aerial survey data for difficult terrains. A stratigraphic test well is a hole drilled for the sole purpose of collecting structural or stratigraphic information to help in the exploration of oil and gas.

“We now have geo-scientific data for the Kerala–Konkan basin and the Mumbai offshore basin on the West coast, and the Mahanadi and the Andaman basins on the East coast,” he said.

In a bid to bring in ease of doing business, Puri noted that the government has consolidated and simplified 37 approval processes into 18, with nine processes now eligible for self-certification.

He, however, added that further reforms are required in the regulatory space.

"Reducing delays in the approval of field development plans, annual plans, and other regulatory permissions is crucial, especially as our nation's import dependency continues to rise."

The government is focusing on boosting domestic exploration and production of oil and gas as India imports about 85% of its energy requirement.

The minister announced the formation of a joint working group comprising representatives from private E&P operators, national oil companies ONGC and OIL, the petroleum ministry and the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons to address industry concerns and improve the ease of doing business in the sector.