India to pass new law on oil exploration in next parliament session, says union petroleum and natural gas minister

Oct 08,2024

New Delhi: India will pass a new law in the next parliament session to facilitate investments in exploration of major offshore oil deposits located in previously blocked zones, Union petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday.

The new law was proposed after obtaining feedback from major oil exploration companies on how policies could be tweaked, Puri said.

"I went to the cabinet with a note, got the cabinet approval and I filed in the parliament. In the next session, which will hopefully be next month, it will be next month, I will get that bill passed and it will be enacted into law," the minister said at the Financial Times conclave in the national capital.

The proposed new law will replace the existing Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Act of 1948, which governs operations of oilfields in the country, Puri said.

As many as 38% of all bids in the ninth round of the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP), which was open from January to September, were for exploration in a previously no-go zone within the country's offshore exploration regions, Puri said. The 10th round of the biannual policy will be passed after the next parliament session.

Puri was speaking about oil exploration zones that were categorised as no-go zones by the government. Companies have shown keen interest in exploring such regions for oil.

"(The government) has cleared 1 million square km, which were earlier no-go areas. By no-go area, I mean either the Navy had a problem there or the Coast Guard had a problem or the DRDO had a problem. Everybody said we can't - this is not allowed," Puri said, adding that the government decided to open up such areas after an internal discussion.