The Indian Government has allocated approximately Rs75bn ($895.74m) for seismic data acquisition and drilling of stratigraphic wells, reported the Economic Times.
In a written reply to the upper house of the Parliament of India, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Suresh Gopi said this investment aims to enhance the quality of data available for India's Sedimentary Basins and attract bidders.
As part of efforts to reduce crude oil imports, the government is promoting the use of natural gas, renewable and alternative fuels, and improvements in energy efficiency and refinery processes.
These efforts are supported by policies designed to boost hydrocarbon production, including the 2014 Production Sharing Contract relaxations, the 2015 Discovered Small Field Policy and the 2016 Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy.
The National Data Repository, established in 2017, is also being upgraded to a cloud-based system, enhancing data accessibility for global investors.
Additionally, the government has sanctioned the establishment of second-generation Ethanol plants and launched the Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation initiative to encourage the use of compressed biogas in transportation.
Reforms continue with the 2019 Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy, the 2020 Natural Gas Marketing Reforms and the recent 2023 Model Revenue Sharing Contracts under the Open Acreage Licensing Programme.
The release of around one million square kilometres of previously restricted offshore areas has already led to gas discoveries by India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation in the Mahanadi offshore basin.
Moreover, the government has approved the acquisition of an additional 50,000 line kilometres of 2D seismic data in areas extending beyond India's exclusive economic zone.
Coal bed methane production has reached two million cubic metres per day (mcm/d), with more blocks set for future bidding.
Discovered small fields have yielded approximately 556,000 barrels of oil and 139mcm of gas cumulatively to fiscal year 2023–24, with plans to offer more fields in upcoming rounds.
In other news, Reliance, an Indian refining leader, recently received approval from the US Government to resume crude oil imports from Venezuela.
