The government has cleared 30 oil and gas projects stuck in contractual disputes, that would also help monetise about 2.6 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Monday."I am happy to share that after this approval, within a short span of less than 3 months, 30 long-pending issues have been resolved. This is expected to result in exploitation of about 34 million barrels of oil and about 0.7 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas," Pradhan said here at the Geo India conference co-sponsored by the Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC).
"The estimated reserves of discoveries where additional probing has been allowed is to the tune of about 172 million barrels of oil and 1.9 TCF of gas reserves," he added.Pradhan said the government has approved a policy framework for relaxation, extensions and clarifications in timelines that will grant operational flexibility to help produce oil and gas from several discoveries.This policy provides for relaxations in timelines under the production sharing contract (PSC) between the government and the explorer so that exploration and production (E&P) activities do not suffer because of excessive rigidity in decision making.
The policy framework for relaxation, extensions and clarifications allows three-to-six month extension in the current 18-60 month timeframe for submission of declaration of commerciality (DoC) of discoveries. The deadline for submitting the investment plan for the discoveries would also be extended by up to six months.Most of the discoveries so held up belong to state-run ONGC, the Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GSPC) and private player Cairn India Ltd.