Abu Dhabi: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan addressed delegates and captains from the energy industry at an exclusive session ‘India E&P-A Most Favoured Investment Destination’ in Abu Dhabi. He spoke about India’s attractiveness as an investment destination and the recent policy reforms and initiatives in Indian E&P sector.
India is the one of the fastest growing economy and 6th largest overall. According to IMF’s World Economic Outlet 2019, the Indian economy is projected to grow at 6.1 % in 2019-20 and 7 % in 2020-21. We aim to transform India to a $5 trillion economy in the next five years.
Economic growth and energy consumption have a very strong relation,as energy is the most critical fuel required in the growth engine of an economy. India is presently the 3rd largest energy consumer in the world & is poised to drive the global energy demand in the coming decades.
Oil and gas industry will continue to play a crucial role in meeting India’s energy requirement despite system-wide energy transition measures. Our oil demand is projected rise at the fastest pace in the world and is expected to reach 10 million barrel per day by 2030.
Natural Gas consumption is expected to increase 3 times to reach 500 MMSCMD by 2030 from the current 150 MMSCMD. India’s share in total global primary energy demand will double to 11% by 2040.
In the last 5 years, a series of transformational policy reforms have been introduced laying the path for unlocking the value of Indian hydrocarbon industry including Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy #HELP and Discovered Small Field policy
Setting up National Data Repository #NDR, removing contractual rigidities in the Production Sharing Contracts, allowing marketing and pricing freedom for sale of natural gas, Enhanced Recovery policy have further enhanced ease of doing business in our hydrocarbon sector.
4 #OALP bidding rounds have been concluded under HELP so far,in which 87 exploration blocks have already been awarded & 7 exploratory blocks are in process of being awarded.These 94 Blocks cover an exploratory area of approximately 136,800 sq. km over 16 Indian sedimentary basins.
We are expediting the process of Petroleum Exploration Licenses (PELs) for entire exploratory area and out of that approx. 75000 sq. km. have already been granted by Central and State Governments.
Investors of these 94 blocks have committed 29,270 LKM of 2D seismic survey & 43,272 sq. km of 3D seismic survey which will generate investment of US$ 2.35 BN over next 3-4 years followed by development expenses in billions of dollars for discoveries in India’s prolific basins.
Operators have started exploration activities in PEL grant areas of OALP Blocks and are infusing latest available technologies to perform those activities. We are very optimistic about more oil and gas discoveries coming out in India in the next 3-4 years.
Investors across the globe can carve out the blocks of their choice with the help of a modern National Data Repository at
@DghIndia
. Blocks identified are put up for International competitive bidding immediately after the closure of EoI submission timelines.
Blocks under OALP Round IV & all future OALP Bid rounds are being awarded under more business friendly regime with lighter regulatory burden.A set of policy reforms were notified in Feb,2019 to overhaul the existing E&P Policies to shift focus from revenue to profit maximisation.
DSF policy was undertaken to monetize the already discovered hydrocarbon potential in small & isolated fields of National oil companies. Till now 2 bidding rounds have been concluded in which 53 contracts were awarded with an estimated investment of around $ 1 billion by 2023.
Governmetn of India has ushered in reforms in respect of pricing and marketing of Natural Gas, which will ensure achievement of target of 15% share of Natural Gas in our energy mix by the year 2030 which is at present 6.2%.
We are perusing for Private participation in 66 producing nomination fields of
ONGC and Oil India Limited to infuse more capital and new technology. India is on the path to become a gas based economy.
In the last 5-6 years India has become the most favoured destination for energy investments. India received US$ 286 billion FDI in the last 5 years. This is almost half of the total FDI in India in the last 20 years. India is among the top 10 FDI destinations in the world.
India has jumped 79 places in the WorldBank’s ease of doing business ranking in 5 years. From 142 in 2014, we are 63 in 2019. This is a massive achievement for the 3rd year in a row. We have undertaken several structural reforms to create business friendly environment.
These reforms include doing business areas of starting a business, insolvency and bankruptcy code, tax reforms, corporate tax rates reduction, Company law reform, trading across the border and intellectual property reforms.
There are a plethora of investment opportunities including in the forthcoming #OALP bid rounds for 230 billion barrel of Oil and Oil Equivalent Gas in over 3 million sq. km. and in oil field equipment services where US$ 100 billion investment is required in the next 10 years.
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