The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum &
Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply
today that in order to exploit
shale gas & Oil in the country, Government of India on 14th October, 2013 announced
the Policy Guidelines for Exploration and Exploitation of Shale Gas and Oil by
National Oil Companies (ONGC and Oil India Limited (OIL)) in their onland
Petroleum Exploration License (PEL) / Petroleum Mining Lease (PML) areas
awarded under the nomination regimes.
In pursuance of this
Policy, under the first phase of assessment ONGC has identified and initiated
shale gas and oil exploration activities in 50 PEL/PML areas; and OIL has
identified and initiated shale gas exploration activities in 6 PEL/PML areas.
The State-wise details of the identified shale gas blocks are given below:
S.No.
|
State/UT
|
Number of Blocks
|
1
|
Andhra
Pradesh
|
10
|
2
|
Arunachal
Pradesh
|
2
|
3
|
Assam
|
6
|
4
|
Gujarat
|
28
|
5
|
Tamil Nadu
|
9
|
6
|
Rajasthan
|
1
|
|
Total
|
56
|
So far, ONGC has drilled
20 assessment wells for Shale gas and oil. OIL has completed G&G studies
and Geochemical analysis in its identified areas. Further, OIL has completed
Conventional Core in one well in Rajasthan.
In order to promote exploration and
exploitation of unconventional hydrocarbon resources such as CBM, shale oil
& gas, Government has recently approved a Hydrocarbon Exploration and
Licensing Policy (HELP) wherein companies can explore and produce all kind of
hydrocarbons including shale oil/gas, CBM & gas hydrate, etc. under single
license.
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YKB/RK