India Unveils New Licensing Round to Attract Oil & Gas Investments
Indian officials join CERAWeek executive to launch the new HELP (Hydrocarbon Exploration & Licensing Policy) round. Holding up the HELP brochures are Anupam Ray, Counsul General of India in Houston (left), Atanu Chakraborty, Director General of Hydrocarbons; Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas; and Atul Arya, Sr. Vice President, IHS. Photo: Bijay Dixit
By Pramod Kulkarni
Houston: India has become the world’s third largest energy consumer. While there is considerable oil and gas production underway. India must still import 75% to 80% of its oil consumption. With India’s GDP expected to rise to 8% in 2018, the energy demand is expected to grow even further.
As one avenue for increasing domestic oil and gas production, Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, unveiled a new licensing round, titled Hydrocarbon Exploration & Licensing Policy (HELP), to open India’s entire sedimentary basins for domestic and international oil and gas companies.
The HELP round was launched on Monday, March 6 night at IHS Markit’s CERAWeek, an annual meeting in Houston that has become the premier meeting place for high-level oil and gas executives and petroleum ministers.
The Indian delegation attending CERAWeek included top-level officials from the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Indian Oil and Oil India.
The HELP licensing round includes several progressive reforms and follows the Discovered Small Fields (DSF) round implemented in 2016.
The new policy aims to provide investors a ready access to huge amount of seismic data through the National Data Repository (NDR), flexibility to carve out exploration acreages through an open acreage licensing process, and increased operational autonomy through a new revenue sharing model that replaces the profit sharing model, which had led to litigation over gas pricing and micromanagement by the government.
The Indian MoPNG was a foundational sponsor for CERAWeek, which raised India’s profile at the conference to a significant level. Minister Pradhan was one of the star attractions at the Ministerial Plenary, which involved an interview conducted by CERAWeek Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin, the oil industry authority, who wrote the classic book about the history of the oil industry, The Prize. The Minister also held discussions with local businessmen leaders Jiten Agarwal and Durga Agarwal.
Minister Pradhan used CERAWeek as a platform to launch policy initiates and to meet numerous industry leaders, including BP CEO Bob Dudley, Lyondell Basell CEO Bhavesh “Bob” Patel, Saudi Arabia oil minister Khalid Al Falih, and James Carr, Canadian Minister of Natural Resources. The minister also had the opportunity to discuss growing economic relations with Texas Governor Greg Abbottand is also expected to meet Department Energy Secretary Rick Perry in Washington D.C.
Last Sunday, the Indian delegation received a practical understanding of Houston’s petrochemical industry with a tour of LyondellBasell’s Houston refinery and the Channelview petrochemical complex.
Indian government officials, including Minister Pradhan (center), UH scientists, and community leaders watch UH Chancellor Renu Khator and OIL CMD Utpal Bora sign the MOU. Photo: Bijay Dixit
OIL, UH Sign MOU for CO2 Capture & Injection
HOUSTON: Oil India Limited (OIL) has entered into a MoU with the University of Houston (UH). The MoU was signed on March 7 in the presence of Minister Pradhan and other senior officials.
The MoU, amongst others, is focused to collaborate in the fields of carbon capture and sequestration, and utilizing the same for CO2 flooding for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) in OIL’s mature oil fields.
OIL is also in talks with NRG, a leading power generating company, to assess CO2 availability from the nearby industry sources and support as well as advise viability of a Carbon Capture & Sequestration pilot project. It is envisaged that the collaboration will help OIL to further consolidate and upgrade processes to improve production.