The Petroleum Ministry is mulling a proposal to allow existing oil and gas explorers to also find shale gas in their respective blocks. But, the final nod rests with the Union Cabinet.
“Cabinet will take a call to allow existing operators to explore shale gas in their blocks,” Petroleum Secretary Vivek Rae told media persons at the CII Annual General Meeting.
“If we can do it, without raising eyebrows, we should do it,” he added.
According to the nodal Ministry, this modus operandi would help faster exploitation of shale gas. Other option is to hold auction rounds, which may take couple of years more.
Public sector explorer ONGC has already under taken an experimental project to explore shale gas. However, it cannot go ahead commercially because the country does not have a shale gas exploration policy.
The Ministry is at the last leg of finalising a policy that would facilitate shale gas exploration in the country. The policy would be sent for Cabinet approval in a fortnight, Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily told Business Line in a recent interview.
National Data Repository (NDR)
The Petroleum Secretary said that bids to set up National Data Repository (NDR) would be invited shortly. NDR is a pre-requisite that hosts seismic data of exploratory block for launching open acreage licensing policy (OLAP).
The data centre should be ready in 18 months. We bid out earlier, bid failed and we lost three years in putting together data, Rae said.
Government proposes to replace the current auctioning of oil and gas blocks under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) by OALP. The new mechanism will help any explorer to examine an area anytime of the year and place a bid to acquire it.