Till date, 108 hydrocarbon discoveries (38 oil and 70 gas discoveries) have been made in 36 New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) blocks in the country. Of these, six discoveries have been put on commercial production in three blocks.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr R.P.N. Singh to the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. He was responding to a question on discoveries under NELP I-VIII.
The discoveries put on commercial production are in Reliance-operated KG-DWN-98/3 (three discoveries: one oil and two gas), NIKO-operated CB-ONN-2000/2 (two discoveries: both gas), and GSPCL-operated CB-ONN-2000/1 (one discovery: oil).
As regards action taken against the operators who are yet to develop their discoveries, the Minister said the discoveries made in NELP blocks, if found to be commercial, are required to be developed by the contractors within a specified timeline in the production sharing contract.
“In case of non-adherence, the contractor is required to relinquish its rights to develop such discovery and the area relating to such discovery should be excluded from the contract area,” he said.
On the action taken with regard two blocks of Reliance, the Minister said, in case of KG-OSN-2001/1 though three discoveries were notified, the Declaration of Commerciality (DoC) was not submitted within the production sharing contract timeline. Hence, the contractor was directed to relinquish the block, which has since been done.
In KG-OSN-2001/2, two oil discoveries were notified, but again the DoC was not submitted within the timeline and hence, it has been recommended for relinquishment.
After its fourth quarter 2011-12 numbers, RIL in its statement had said, that as part of the re-assessment of its portfolio together with BP, it has relinquished 10 NELP blocks. Currently, RIL has 17 exploration blocks and one producing block KG-DWN-98/3 or D6 block
Besides these, the company has CBM blocks and stake in Panna-Mukta and Tapti fields.
Meanwhile, Niko Resources Ltd, on Tuesday announced that along with its partners – Reliance and BP – the company has chosen to relinquish D4 (MN-DWN-2003/1) block. For Niko this decision is the result of the most current geological assessment related to the size and risk of the trapping mechanism and current commercial environment in India.