OTHERS
| Govt approves bulk of delay-hit 52 oil & gas blocks Sun, 14 Oct 2012 16:34:41 +0530 |
| Business Standard Economy Policy News The government has cleared a bulk of the 52 oil and gas blocks that were stuck for want of defence and environmental clearances, Oil Secretary G C Chaturvedi said today. "A high level committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary and comprising of officials of ministries such as defence and environment, has been set up to give clearance for exploration blocks," he told reporters at the Petrotech 2012 Conference here. The panel takes up clearances of blocks that have been pending for a long time. The government had in nine rounds of New Exploration and Licensing Policy (NELP), since 1999, awarded 254 blocks to domestic and overseas explorers. Of these, 52 blocks are stuck for want of clearances, hurting the nation's plan to expedite exploration of oil and gas to cut its ballooning import bill. "We have been clearing blocks and I believe only 11-12 blocks are pending for clearances now," Chaturvedi said. Till August, 52 blocks awarded under various rounds of NELP bidding were pending for clearance by different organisations such as Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Environment and Forest, international boundary disputes and state governments. Of the blocks awaiting clearances, 22 were of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and 15 belong to Reliance Industries. Australian BHP Billiton's five blocks, three of Cairn India, two of Santos International and one each of British Gas, BP, Focus Energy, ENI of Italy and Jubilant Oil and Gas were stuck. Chaturvedi said out of 52 blocks, clearances were pending in respect of 43 blocks from Ministry of Defence due to deference related issues. Most of these have now been cleared. "Efforts have been made to get necessary clearances through meetings with concerned ministries/departments. Efforts are on to get clearances in respect of remaining blocks," he said. Explorers led by RIL have so far invested about $20.19 billion in oil and gas hunt in blocks awarded under NELP. So far, 113 oil and gas discoveries under NELP have been made in 38 blocks. Under NELP, about 737 million tonnes of oil equivalent hydrocarbons reserves have been added. India's crude oil import bill jumped 48% to Rs 672,220 crore in 2011-12. The nation imported 171.7 million tonnes of crude oil in 2011-12, up from 163.6 million tonnes imported in the previous year for Rs 455,276 crore. In 2009-10, the country had imported 159.3 million tonnes of crude oil for Rs 375,277 crore. |
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