Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia informed that the government may approve exploration in many of the 39 oil and gas blocks that await defence clearance in next two weeks.
Agency reports indicate that officials from ministries of defence and petroleum have sorted out issues at majority of the 39 blocks.
At the January 30 meeting, the recently constituted Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) asked the oil and defense ministries to resolve issues in clearing these blocks in the next one month.
The meeting also discussed the declaration of 7 blocks including Reliance Industries’ (RIL) KG-D6 gas block and its gas discovery area NEC-25 as ‘No-Go’ area by the defence ministry and stringent conditions being imposed on exploring in another 32 blocks.
CCI asked the ministries of defense and oil to sort out issues like exploration area overlapping with proposed Naval base or being close to missile launching and Air Force exercise area, within one month.
The committee, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is to then consider giving the blocks go-ahead for oil and gas exploration and production.
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