Oil and Gas Production

The Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas S. Jaipal Reddy informed in the Lok Sabha in a written reply that with the efforts of his Ministry, all-round progress has been made in the petroleum sector.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is mandated to take measures for exploitation of petroleum resources including natural gas, coal bed methane, and distribution, marketing and pricing of petroleum products. The details of growth in upstream, midstream and downstream sectors during the last three years and next 03 years are as under:

“There are no regulatory bottlenecks in the growth of oil and gas production”, he added .

He also said that in order to increase the production of oil and gas and increase in refining capacity, the following steps have been taken by the Government:-

A.        Production of oil and gas

1. Implementation of New exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) – 8 rounds of NELP have already been completed. Through these rounds, 235 exploration blocks have been awarded and 103 oil and gas discoveries have been made. The bidding of 9^th round of NELP has also been completed in which 74 bids have been received for 33 exploration blocks against the 34 blocks offered.
2. Coal Bed Methane (CBM)- Coal Bed Methane is an environment friendly clean fuel similar to Natural Gas. 33 CBM contracts have been signed for exploration of CBM. As of now, 250 BCM reserves have been established in 5 CBM blocks. At present CBM gas production is about 2.3 lakh cubic meters per day.
3. Implementation of Oil Recovery Scheme- To increase the oil and gas production in the country, the oil companies are implementing Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) and Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Schemes.

B. Refining Sector

In order to give boost to refining capacity in the country, Refining Sector has been delicensed since 1998. Refineries can now be established by any public or private sector entity based on techno commercial feasibility.

After delicensing of the sector in 1998, the refining capacity in the country increased from 62 MMTPA in 1998 to 148.96 in 2008-09 and to 193.386 MMTPA in 2011. Further, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) has recently commissioned a 6.0 MMTPA refinery at Bina, Madhya Pradesh in Joint venture with Oman Oil Company, Oman and enhanced the capacity of its Kochi Refinery from 7.5 MMTPA to 9.5 MMTPA. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) is setting up a 9.0 MMTPA refinery at Bhatinda, Punjab in joint venture with Mittal Energy Investment Pvt. Ltd. and has commissioned a study on pre-project activities for 9.0 MMTPA grassroots refinery at Ratnagiri district in the State of Maharashtra. Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) is also setting up a 15.0 MMTPA refinery at Paradip, Odisha.

Source : PIB