India plans to increase exploration acreage to 0.5 mn sq. km by 2025
NEW DELHI: India is planning to increase its exploration acreage to 0.5 million sq. km by 2025 and 1.0 million sq. km by 2030, said petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday.Puri, speaking at an ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation) ceremony held on Sagar Samrat, said India’s energy demand is likely to grow at about 3% per annum by 2040, as against the global rate of 1%. Further, 25% of the global energy growth between 2020 and 2040 is going to come from India due to its fast-growing economy, he said.
He asked to cut down on oil import, in which government spent nearly $120 billion in FY 2021-22. “India’s Amrit Kaal can’t be realised without achieving energy independence by 2047. Under this mandate, the government has taken multiple steps to ensure that our future generations enjoy energy security,” the minister added
He said the government has been successful in reducing the ‘No Go’ area by 99%, thereby making available additional about 1 million Sq.km of India’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) for exploration. “Several MNCs like Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Total Energies are showing interest to invest in Indian E&P segment and some are in talks with ONGC for firming up mutually beneficial partnerships,” he further added.
During the event, Puri rededicated ONGC’s iconic drilling rig Sagar Samrat, as a mobile offshore production unit (MOPU) at the ceremony. Commissioned in 1973, Sagar Samrat was built at Mitsubishi yard in Japan and set sail from Hiroshima on April 3, 1973. It drilled ONGC’s first offshore well in 1974 in Mumbai Offshore region of Arabian Sea, then called the Bombay High.