October 12, 2001

'20'

    "During the past two years of the present Government, the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas made significant progress in various areas relating to the Hydrocarbon Sector. Making domestic Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) available on demand, accelerating efforts to explore more oil and gas, achieving self-sufficiency in the crude refining and tapping alternative sources of energy to supplement the limited hydrocarbon resources have been some of the major achievements during this period", stated Shri Ram Naik, Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas, while presenting a Report of the Performance of his Ministry entitled "Energising India Milestone-2" in a press conference held in New Delhi today. He also gave details of some of the achievements.

    One of the most significant achievements of the Government was the liquidation of waiting list for LPG connections. When the new Government was formed in October 1999, the waiting list for LPG connections was to the tune of 1.10 crore. During the two years, the Government released 1.95 crore new connections, creating a history in public service by liquidating the waiting list. LPG connections are now available on demand across the country. Further it has been planned to release another 1.30 crore LPG connections during the calendar year 2001. The Government has also envisaged to set up 1,200 exclusively rural LPG distributorships out of 3,608 new distributorships being set up, 33% of them are reserved for women.

    To cater to the needs of people in Ladakh Region, three projects of LPG Bottling Plant, Oil Depot and Aviation Fuel Station were inaugurated on 10.10.2001. These projects are, perhaps, at the highest altitude world over and may find place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

    Government has decided to introduce small size cylinders of 5 kg. for domestic purpose. The introduction of small size LPG cylinder will help to cater to the demand of low income group in urban, semi-urban and rural pockets and enable penetration of hilly terrain and interior areas on account of convenience in transportation. 5 kg. cylinder in terms of deposit and cost of refills would be affordable for the low income groups.

    With a view to reduce pollution, Government has permitted use of LPG, being a cleaner and environmental friendly fuel as an auto-fuel. The LPG (Regulation of use in Motor Vehicles) Order, 2001 was published on 01.08.2001. Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies have identified 228 locations for setting up of auto LPG dispensing stations in Metros, i.e., Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai and some other major cities in the country in the initial stage. Other major cities include, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Chandigarh, Jullunder, Ludhiana, Amristsar, Patna, Pune, Nagpur, Aahmedabad, Vadodra, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kochi.

    To reduce the country's import dependence of about 70 per cent (which works out to approximately Rs. 80,000 crore), efforts were stepped up to increase exploration in the country. Under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), two rounds of bidding for exploration blocks were completed by awarding 47 blocks (24 under NELP-I and 23 under NELP-II) both on-land and off-shore including in the deep waters off east and west coast. In fact a gas discovery named "Annapurna" has been made in May 2001, i.e. within 13 months from contact signing for NELP-I, in a Block located in the Krishna-Godavari deepwater. The entire process of bid evaluation, award of blocks and signing of contracts was completed in a short time of about 3-1/2 months in the second NELP round, a vast improvement over previous bidding rounds. It would be pertinent to note that against 47 blocks awarded under NELP in two years, only 22 blocks were awarded in earlier 10 years.

    ONGC has identified its 15 major fields for implementing Improved Oil Recovery (IOR)/ Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) plans to increase recovery from these fields. These include Rs.8,000 crore Re-development Plan of Mumbai High, of which Re-development of Mumbai High (North) was launched in January 2001. The re-development plan for Mumbai High (South) is under finalisation at an estimated investment of about Rs.5,200 crore.

    ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) acquired 20% participation in Rosneft, Russia in the Sakhalin-I offshore project involving highest ever estimated investment of about Rs.8,000 crore by any Indian company abroad in a single project. The agreement was signed on 10.02.2001 at Moscow. OVL's share of oil would be 2 to 4 million metric tonnes (MMT) and of gas 5 to 8 million metric standard cubic metres per day (MMSCMD). This investment will help in enhancing oil security for the country.

    To encourage exploration and production of new source of hydrocarbon resources, Government has formulated a Coal Bed Methane (CBM) policy for production of CBM gas. Under the policy, Government offered 7 blocks in the first ever round of CBM for exploration and production. These 7 blocks are located in Jharkhand (2 blocks), Madhya Pradesh (3 blocks), Rajasthan (1 block) and West Bengal (1 block). Multiple bids received for the blocks are being evaluated and would be awarded very soon.

    Three Pilot Projects on gasohol, a product arrived from blending 5% ethanol with petrol, were set up - two in Maharashtra (Miraj and Manmad) and one in Uttar Pradesh (Bareilly). All the three projects have already started the sale of the product in their supply zones. On successful completion of the field trials and the R&D studies in the pilot projects, the prospects for commercialization of the ethanol-blended fuel would be considered. The blending of ethanol with petrol will benefit sugar cane farmers. In addition, it would save valuable foreign exchange. Its use would also result in about 10-12% less carbon dioxide emission than that from petrol and would generate negligible sulphur compound mixture. An inter-ministerial task force has been constituted with representatives from the State Governments to prepare a road map for switching over to ethanol blended gasohol from ordinary petrol within a stipulated time frame.

SELF-SUFFICIENCY IN REFINING

    The refining capacity has now reached 112.54 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) as against 69 MMTPA at the close of 1998-99. The country has thus attained self-reliance in refining sector. To keep pace with increasing consumption, 5 major new grass-root refinery projects are being implemented to add 40.5 MMTPA to refining capacity. Foundations of 9 MMTPA Refinery of IOC at Paradeep (Orissa) was laid by the Prime Minister on 24.05.2000 and the construction of 9 MMTPA Refinery of HPCL at Bhatinda (Punjab) commenced on 02.06.2000.

    The Prime Minister dedicated first cross-country LPG Pipeline to the Nation on 09.05.2001. This pipeline with carrying capacity of 1.7 MMTPA has been completed by Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) at a cost of Rs.1,230 Crore. It is also the world’s longest LPG pipeline with a length of 1,270 Kms. running through five States of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Commissioning of this cross-country pipeline has ensured easy availability of LPG to all these States.

    Out of about 240 PSUs of the Government of India, 12 PSUs under the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas have continued their outstanding performance. Out of 12, there are 5 Navratnas and 6 Mini-ratnas and the other one has just commenced production. Moreover, out of top 10 PSUs in turnover, 6 are from Oil PSUs while out of top 10 PSUs in profit after tax, 5 are oil PSUs. The Oil PSUs recorded profit after tax of Rs. 11,825 crore against paid up captial of Rs. 5,204 crore during 2000-2001. The profit after tax was substantially higher than Rs. 9,683 crore recorded in the previous year.