With the signing of the blocks awarded under the eighth round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-VIII) and the fourth round of Coal Bed Methane (CBM-IV) in July, 2010, another major step has been taken in India’s quest for oil and gas availability. An additional area of about 55,000 sq.kms under NELP and  5,000 sq.kms under CBM have been opened up for exploration of oil, and natural gas and through these acreages.

We are on the threshold of launching Ninth round of NELP shortly. This would possibly be the last round before we switch over to Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) system which was awaiting the establishment of National Data Repository (NDR) which is going to be set up during the next one year. NDR will facilitate implementation of OALP. Another area of focus for DGH is to enhance the availability of acreages for CBM activities. Presently the area is restricted due to Coal Mining and Oil and Gas activities where acreages are awarded on exclusive basis and  CBM can not be simultaneously exploited in such areas under the present policy framework. Our focus is now to open these areas for simultaneous exploration for CBM as well. Policy framework is being formulated for the purpose. In very near future, it will be possible to carry out simultaneous operations of CBM along with coal mining and oil and gas activities. This will make available large additional acreages for CBM

By now India has made its presence felt globally in the area of oil, gas and CBM exploration and production. We have developed sufficient scientific and technical competence to explore and exploit our oil/gas and CBM resources even in hostile deep and ultra deep water environment. Simultaneously, we are looking for other yet unconventional resources like Gas Hydrates, Shale Gas and oil from oil shales. We have entered in to Gas Hydrate Exploration very systematically and have been able to discover huge deposit in Krishna – Godavari and Andaman offshore areas. Further work is continuing for exploring means of commercial exploration of Gas Hydrates which requires extensive R&D. We are working in this area with global cooperation with several countries through MOUs. This will be the future focus  area of Gas Hydrates. We are also exploring ways and means to extract oil from oil shales in North Eastern areas. Beginning has been made in this respect by inviting EOIs for examining techno-economics and related issues including environment  

Another important initiative by DGH relates to the development of shale gas resources  in India. Natural gas production from hydrocarbon rich shale formations, known as “shale gas”, is one of the most rapidly expanding energy resources in the world. In view of its environmentally friendly qualities, natural gas is the preferred fossil fuel for the future.  The India Hydrocarbon Vision 2025 envisaged a demand of about 391 MMSCMD of gas by the year 2025. The current production of natural gas in the country is about 150 MMSCMD. It is obvious that there would be a significant gap between demand and supply in the coming two decades. In this context, shale gas as an emerging energy unconventional fossil fuel source merits attention and deserves to be pursued vigorously. Shale gas has been exploited in the United States of America for close to 200 years now. A key element in the emergence of shale gas development in recent times has been the refinement of cost-effective horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracture technologies. Now the technology is well established for exploitation of shale gas.

India needs to pursue systematic and extensive exploration for shale gas deposits. Sedimentary basins with conditions favorable for shale gas do exist in our country. Several basins are expected to have potential for the occurrence of Shale gas. Some are well explored like Cambay, KG and  some are poorly explored or unexplored such as the Vindhyan, Cuddapah, Ganga and Deccan Syneclise. Well explored basins like the Cambay could hold huge promise. What is needed is an affirmation that substantial shale gas deposits occurring in our sedimentary basins are profitably exploited.

A core group, coordinated by DGH and comprising members from ONGC, OIL and GAIL has been entrusted with the task of estimating the shale gas resources in various sedimentary basins of India. Accordingly, a beginning has been made for estimation of shale gas resources in the well explored basins such as Cambay, KG etc. While there is a clear cut policy for exploration and exploitation of conventional oil,  gas and CBM  a policy is yet to be formulated for shale gas exploration and exploitation  in India. The exploration strategies and commercial production processes for shale gas are quite different from that of conventional hydrocarbons. Therefore, exploration for shale gas needs a separate approach and policy. The core group will look into this aspect also. Being the leader in shale gas development, the USA has offered to provide assistance to India in development of shale gas. An MOU is likely to be signed between GOI and USA in this regard.

Government is making efforts to see that blocks for shale gas exploration and production are made available to potential companies interested in developing this resource by the end of 2011. This will mark the beginning of a new era in the energy scenario of our country and a significant step towards energy self-reliance.

The website has been developed to reveal possible relevant information relating to E&P sector activities in general and DGH activities in particular. I feel visitors to the website will find it useful.  

(  S.K.Srivastava  )