Government of India
completed the process of awarding with the signing of 23 Production
Sharing Contracts (PSCs) under New Exploration Licensing Policy
(NELP) III with various consortia/companies. These companies
included Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation, Hardy Exploration
& Production(UK), Geo-Global Resources (Canada), Indian
Oil Corporation Limited, Jubilant Enpro Limited, Oil & Natural
Gas Corporation Limited, OIL, and Reliance Industries Limited.
The PSC signing took place, here today, in the presence of Shri
Ram Naik, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Shri Santosh
Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural
Gas and Shri B.K. Chaturvedi, Secretary (P&NG) were also
present.
Speaking on the
occasion, Shri Ram Naik informed that these PSCs related to
6 shallow water blocks and 9 deep water blocks in East &
West Coast as also 8 onland blocks in the States of Andhra Pradesh,
Assam, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan
and Tripura. He further said that an area of 2.05 lakh sq. km.
would be covered by the 23 blocks and total estimated investment
in three phases of exploration would be about Rs. 5,000 crore.
He also provided salient details about these blocks with the
map giving location of these blocks.
Shri Ram Naik announced
a new oil and gas find in Rajasthan. Well RJE-1 of the pre-NELP
block RJ/ON/90-1, where M/s Cairn Energy have 100% stakes, was
tested and the results were received today morning. The well
flowed 200 barrels of oil and 7.3 MMSCFD (0.2 MMSCMD app.) of
gas in the interval 1241 – 1338 metres. Besides, there was production
of 2.2 MMSCFD (0.08 MMSCMD app.) of gas and hydrocarbon indications
in a tight reservoir, in two deeper intervals. The oil produced
is sweet and waxy with 30 degree API. Preliminary estimates
of mean "Oil In Place" are about 155 million barrels (20 MMT
app.). The Minister told that this oil discovery was in unexpected
horizons and has led to new geological insights. Shri Naik congratulated
M/s Cairn Energy for their new discovery and hoped that these
discoveries in block RJ/ON/90-1 would be commercialised soon.
He opined that the State of Rajasthan will now come up on the
Oil Map of India.
Recalling the experience
of last three years, the Minister said that 70 PSCs have now
been signed under the three NELP rounds, covering an area of
about 7.1 lakh sq. km. This amounts to 23% of India’s sedimentary
basins and is about 70% of exploration acreages at present.
Shri Naik pointed
out that the successful bidders for these 70 NELP blocks had
given aggressive work programme and committed investments of
Rs.14,500 crore in three exploration phases with possibility
of substantial increase in investment level with discoveries
being made as a result of exploration efforts.
Shri Naik said
that he was happy to see the results of NELP implementation
and 7 discoveries with preliminary initial estimates of about
250 Million Metric Tonnes of oil plus oil equivalent gas had
already been made in three NELP blocks. Of these, two are in
KG deepwater basin from NELP-I operated by Reliance - Niko consortium
and Cairn Energy of U.K. and one in Gujarat State from NELP-II
operated by Niko Resources, Canada. He said that the work was
going on in these and other NELP blocks and hope for sizeable
discoveries in the days to come.
The Minister highlighted
the faster pace of decision making under NELP with the entire
process of awarding and signing contracts brought down to 3-7
months as compared to 3-4 years earlier. This is indicated in
table below.
| |
Pre-NELP
|
NELP
|
|
Time from
bid closing to award
|
6 to 38 months
|
2 to 4 months
|
|
Contract
finalisation
|
24 to 48
months
|
1 to 3 months
|
|
Exploratory
wells
|
21 in 10
years
|
15 in 3 years
|
Shri Naik congratulated
the awardee consortiums who had signed the 23 PSCs today and
wished them the best of luck in their search for oil and gas
in NELP-III blocks. He assured that in this national endeavour
all possible cooperation would be available from the Central
Government and from the State Governments concerned. Following
are the details of blocks for which PSCs were signed:
|
S.No.
|
Block No.
|
Location
of Block
|
Name of
Signatory Companies
|
|
1.
|
KG-OSN-2001/3
|
Krishna-Godavari (Shallow
water)
|
Consortium of GSPC, GEO &
JEL.
|
|
2.
|
AA-ONN-2001/2
|
Mizoram
|
Consortium of IOC & ONGC
|
|
3.
|
AA-ONN-2001/3
|
Assam
|
Consortium of OIL & ONGC
|
|
4.
|
CY-DWN-2001/1
|
Cauvery Deepwater
|
Consortium of OIL & ONGC
|
|
5.
|
RJ-ONN-2001/1
|
Rajasthan
|
Consortium of OIL & ONGC
|
|
6.
|
AA-ONN-2001/1
|
Tripura
|
ONGC
|
|
7.
|
AA-ONN-2001/4
|
Nagaland
|
ONGC
|
|
8.
|
HF-ONN-2001/1
|
H.P.
|
ONGC
|
|
9.
|
CB-ONN-2001/1
|
Gujarat
|
ONGC
|
|
10.
|
PG-ONN-2001/1
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
ONGC
|
|
11.
|
GS-OSN-2001/1
|
Gujarat-Saurashtra (Shallow
Water)
|
ONGC
|
|
12.
|
KK-OSN-2001/2
|
Kerala-Konkan (Shallow Water)
|
ONGC
|
|
13.
|
KK-OSN-2000/3
|
Kerala-Konkan (Shallow Water)
|
ONGC
|
|
14.
|
KK-DWN-2000/3
|
Kerala-Konkan (Deepwater)
|
ONGC
|
|
15.
|
KG-OSN-2001/1
|
Krishna-Godavari
(Shallow Water)
|
Consortium of RIL & HEPI
|
|
16.
|
KK-DWN-2001/1
|
Kerala-Konkan
(Deepwater)
|
Consortium of RIL & HEPI
|
|
17.
|
KK-DWN-2001/2
|
Kerala-Konkan
(Deepwater)
|
Consortium of RIL & HEPI
|
|
18.
|
CY-DWN-2001/1
|
Cauvery
(Deepwater)
|
Consortium of RIL & HEPI
|
|
19.
|
CY-DWN-2001/2
|
Cauvery
(Deepwater)
|
Consortium of RIL & HEPI
|
|
20.
|
CY-PR-DWN02001/3
|
Cauvery-Palar
(Deepwater)
|
Consortium of RIL & HEPI
|
|
21.
|
CY-PR-DWN-2001/4
|
Cauvery-Palar
(Deepwater)
|
Consortium of RIL & HEPI
|
|
22.
|
PR-DWN-2001/1
|
Palar
(Deepwater)
|
Consortium of RIL & HEPI
|
|
23.
|
KG-DWN-2001/1
|
Krishna-Godavari
(Deepwater)
|
Consortium of RIL & HEPI
|
GSPC - Gujarat State Petroleum
Corpn. Ltd. IOC – Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.
GEO - Geo-Global Resources Inc.
OIL - Oil India Limited
ONGC - Oil & Natural Gas Corpn.
Ltd. RIL - Reliance Industries Ltd.
HEPI - Hardy Exploration &
Production India Inc.
