The Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas M Veerappa Moily informed Lok Sabha that so far, a total of 118 discoveries (45 oil and 73 gas) have been made in 39 New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) blocks.
This resulted in establishment of In-Place oil volume of 39.76 million metric tonne (mn t) and gas volume of 705.36 billion cubic meter (BCM) respectively. He added that a total of 360 exploration blocks were offered under nine rounds of NELP bidding held so far, of which Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) have been signed for 254 blocks by various companies (central or state Public Sector Undertakings : 144 blocks, Private Companies : 70 blocks and Foreign Companies : 40 blocks, as operators).
He also said that the PSCs under NELP are signed for exploration blocks. The commercial production of oil or gas depends on exploration success, leading to hydrocarbon discoveries.
Since exploration success cannot be predicted upfront during the signing of the contracts, no timeline is specified in the PSCs for commencement of commercial production of oil or gas.
However, PSCs provide timelines, seven years for on-land and shallow water and eight years for deep water, for exploration activities.
PSC also has prescribed timelines for notification or appraisal of discoveries and submission of Declaration of Commerciality (DoC) or Field Development Plan (FDP) in respect of commercial oil or gas discoveries etc, the minister informed.
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