New Delhi: India is putting in all kinds of effort to ramp up its own traditional fossil-based energy production, and the latest push is to dig deep in the Andaman region.
Talking to on Monday, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Hardeep Puri, outlined several measures the government has been taking over the years for exploration and production. He also noted the exploration in the Andamans is pointing to “good news” and may end up becoming India’s ‘Guyana moment’.
The minister said India has 3.5 million square kilometres of sedimentary basin, but it never explored beyond eight per cent area, keeping a large expanse of sea beds untapped and unexplored.
Puri said that it is their government which had decided to explore a large part of the basin.
“There were parts of the sedimentary basin which were no-go areas. So one of the decisions which we took was that 1 million square kilometres of that sedimentary basin, which was no-go area, has suddenly been made available for E&P,” the minister said.
So far in the nine round of open acreage licensing policy, 38 per cent of the bids came in that 1 million square kilometres and the Minister expects that in the next round — for which work is going on right now – will attract more than 75 per cent of the bids.
“We’ve also issued some of the largest bids on offer anywhere — something like 2.5 lakh square kilometres of area has been offered out on bidding,” the minister said.
The minister said that India has the potential of something around 42 billion tonnes of oil and gas equivalent in its sedimentary basins.
Exploring offshore reserves are capital extensive, and which is why it took so much time for India to tap the untapped potential under its seas.
“An onshore well costs something like USD 4 million on an average. I’m talking about global rates and dollar rates being held at a particular constant. And an offshore well costs about USD 100 million,” he supplemented.
ONGC, which is India’s premier company for exploration and production, has dug the largest number of wells in nearly four decades this year, the minister said.
Referring to Guyana, which has recently discovered a massive oil reserves after dozens of failed attempts, the minister said India also has potential for ‘several Guyanas’ in the Andaman region.
“They (Guyana) dug 46 wells and they didn’t find any oil. It’s when they dug the 47th one, they found oil. And then it became the largest find,” the minister said.
Against that context, the Minister said, “we have the potential of several Guyanas in the Andaman.”
The minister also highlighted a few wells which India dug recently and found oil and gas reserves.
In Suryamani, he said, a potential of 4 million metric tons of oil equivalent was found. In Neelmani, a potential of 1.2 million metric tons of oil equivalent was found.
In another well, at a depth of of 2,865 metres, both oil and gas reserves were found, the minister said.
“This is under estimation. They’re still trying to find out, but they have struck,” he added.
In 2023 24 under OALP 3, in another well, at 2,957 metres depth, around 5 million metric tonnes of oil equivalent was found.
Citing all these data, he drove the point that India has got the green shoots.
“Each place you found the oil, now you’re estimating it, then you’re digging deeper and deeper. As we speak, we have four places where ONGC and Oil India Limited are digging at 5,000 metres,” he told ANI.
India today imports 80 per cent of its oil and 50 per cent of its natural gas needs.
Last week, the minister held a review meeting with the petroleum secretary and heads of Indian energy PSUs. After the meeting, the minister said that India has adequate energy supplies for the coming months.
The oil supply update by the minister attaches importance, given that the international oil prices shot up sharply amid Israel-Iran conflict.
India is now importing oil and gas from as many countries as possible to meet its demand.
