(FE)
India by 2021 will witness hydrocarbon production from its eighth sedimentary basin, Kutch offshore, as national explorer ONGC has prepared an investment plan that will be submitted soon to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH). Kutch offshore is estimated to hold about 1 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves. While work to put the basin on the oil and gas production map of India has been going on for two-three years, the recent changes in the policy framework has buoyed the state-run firm, according to a company executive.
Apart from the Assam Shelf, ONGC is credited with putting on production six of the seven producing basins of the country — Assam-Arakan Fold Belt, Cambay, Cauvery, Krishna Godavari, Mumbai Offshore and Rajasthan. While India has a total of 26 sedimentary basins, Cauvery was the last one to begin production and was discovered in 1985.
The government recently made changes to its Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy wherein for the existing contracts, marketing and pricing freedom to sell on arm’s length basis through competitive bidding has been permitted for those new gas discoveries whose field development plan (FDP) will be approved for the first time since issuance of the new policy. “We are coming to the FDP level,” said the executive.
