Minister of State (IC)for Petroleum & Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan has underscored the need for a resurgence in the exploration and production sector in India.Addressing the 11th International Conference and Exposition, organized by the Society of Petroleum Geophysicists, in Jaipur today ,Shri Pradhan said India is the fastest growing major economy in the world today.He said “IMF has assessed India’s GDP growth rate at 7.3% this year & 7.6% in 2016. Similarly, India’s energy consumption in 2014 witnessed an increase of 7.1% over that of 2013, which is the highest in the world,”.Quoting India Energy Report, recently brought out by the International Energy Agency, Shri Pradhan said that by 2040, India’s energy demand will be close to that of the United States, even though demand per capita will still remain 40% below the world average. The IEA report also projects that India’s oil import dependence will increase above 90% by 2040.
Keeping in view these statistics, the minister asked to revisit India’s upstream hydrocarbon statistics. “For the past 3 years, our domestic crude production has remained static at around 37-38 Million Metric Tons. If we look at domestic natural gas output, we find that the production has actually declined from 111 MMSCMD in 2012-13 to 92 MMSCMD in 2014-15”, he said. Shri Pradhan said in this context, therefore, the upstream E&P sector is a key component of National Energy Security. And within the E&P sector, the Geophysicist fraternity is the most important cog in the wheel. Shri Pradhan suggested that E&P companies need to adopt and implement State-of-art technology in order to explore the frontier and difficult areas. They must also aggressively deploy 3D & 4D Seismic, Horizontal drilling, fracturing and IOR/EOR technologies. And they must tap the unconventional sources like Shale Oil and Gas, CBM, Gas Hydrates etc.
Shri Pradhan has exhorted the geophysicists attending the conference to accelerate exploration campaigns. “Over the last 18 months, we have succeeded in resolving past rigidities in many NELP contracts, the testing method issue was resolved, all the Management Committee meetings were held in time and Government took a role of facilitator to resolve issues in each block”, he noted. Shri Pradhan said that recently Government has approved Marginal Field Policy for auctioning of 69 Marginal Fields which have remained idle for decades together. The successful bidder would have right to all hydrocarbons in the field and sell gas to customers of their choice at market prices. We want to encourage even smaller private players to participate in this initiative so that the Oil & Gas ecosystem would expand, he added.
He informed that only a few days back, the ministry circulated a consultation paper inviting opinion from all the stakeholders on the new fiscal & contractual regime for award of hydrocarbon acreages. The fundamental changes proposed include principles like Uniform Licensing for both conventional and unconventional E&P, Open Acreage Licensing Policy and creation of a National Data Repository, contractual model based on Revenue Sharing, and freedom of gas Pricing & Marketing. This new policy is being formulated in tune with government’s goal of increasing the ‘Ease of doing Business’. “I would only like to say that Exploration is the first step in E&P business; if the first step is right, then the chances of getting the next steps right are higher. Exploration is also a high-stakes activity. Let us all, therefore, collaborate to find appropriate technical solutions for achieving greater success in our exploration efforts”, he concluded. Shri Pradhan was accompanied by Petroleum Secretary Shri K.D. Tripathi, CMD ONGC Shri Dinesh K Sarraf and other functional directors on ONGC Board.