The Government has taken various policy initiatives to increase the domestic production of crude oil and natural gas which include: -

(i) Policy for Relaxations, Extensions and Clarifications under Production Sharing Contract (PSC) regime for early monetization of hydrocarbon discoveries;

(ii) New Domestic Natural Gas Pricing Guidelines-2014;

(iii) Marketing including pricing freedom on natural gas production under PSC regime from difficult areas such as High Pressure-High Temperature (HP-HT) reservoirs and deep water and ultra deep water areas;

(iv) Discovered Small Field Policy;

(v) Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy;

(vi) Policy for Extension of Production Sharing Contracts;

(vii) Policy for early monetization of Coal Bed Methane;

(viii) Setting up of National Data Repository;

(ix) National Seismic Programme for appraisal of Unappraised areas in Sedimentary Basins;

(x) Re-assessment of Hydrocarbon Resources;

(xi) Policy framework to streamline the working of Production Sharing Contracts in Pre-NELP and NELP Blocks;

(xii) Policy to Promote and Incentivize Enhanced Recovery Methods for Oil and Gas;

(xiii) Policy framework for exploration and exploitation of Unconventional Hydrocarbons under existing Production Sharing Contracts, Coal Bed Methane contracts and Nomination fields.

Up to 10th CGD Bidding Round, PNGRB has authorized 228 GAs covering 406 districts spread over 27 States and UTs covering approximately 70 percent of India’s population and 53 percent of its geographical area for development of CGD network.

9 Geographical Areas (GAs) in Odisha upto 10th CGD bidding round are Khordha district, Cuttack district, Angul & Dhekanal Districts; Sundargarh & Jharsuguda Districts; Balasore, Bhadrak & Mayurbhanj Districts; Bargarh, Debagarh & Sambalpur Districts; Ganjam, Nayagarh & Puri Districts; Jagatsinghpur & Kendrapara Districts; Jajpur & Kendujhar Districts, wherein authorization has been issued. CGD network in GAs of Khordha district and Cuttack district is operational.

GAIL is executing Jagdishpur-Haldia-Bokaro-Dhamra Pipeline (JHBDPL) of length 2,655 km and Barauni-Guwahati Pipeline of length 729 km under Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga Project to connect Eastern India. Total length of pipeline under Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga Project is approx. 3,384 km, out of which 766 km of pipeline is in Odisha state and the balance 2,618 km is in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal & Assam. At present the pipeline has been commissioned upto Barauni in Bihar.

This information was given by Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha today.

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YKB/SK