India’s exploration and production (E&P) sector presents investment opportunities worth $100 billion by 2030, according to Hardeep Singh Puri, the minister of petroleum and natural gas. He emphasized the government’s commitment to enhancing domestic oil and gas production while reducing reliance on imports.
Significant potential remains untapped within the country’s sedimentary basins, which currently contain approximately 651.8 million tonnes of crude oil and 1,138.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
To date, upstream sector companies have explored only 10 percent of these basins. The government aims to increase the explored area to sixteen percent by the end of 2024 following the conclusion of the upcoming bid rounds under the Open Acreage Licensing Program. Additionally, there are plans to expand the exploration acreage to one million square kilometers by 2030.
As reported by projectstoday.com, in the first eight bid rounds, the government had awarded a total of 144 blocks covering roughly 2,44,007 square kilometers. An investment of ₹7,500 crore is allocated for acquiring new seismic data, which includes data from the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), financing stratigraphic wells, and obtaining aerial survey data for challenging terrains.
