The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) plans to come up with an exploration and licensing policy, on the lines of the New Exploration and Licensing Policy (Nelp), for shale oil and gas in India.
Director General of Hydrocarbons V K Sibal told Business Standard that after establishing the commercial viability of shale oil in India, the directorate could go the Nelp way wherein the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas would announce the first round of bidding for oil shale, organise road shows in select places, sell data package, open data rooms, receive and evaluate bids, and award blocks.
“We are doing the initial study and once we establish the deposits in the next few months, we will go to the market and declare its financial viability. We are gathering data on the prognostic resources available and would finalise something in the next two-three months,” Sibal added.
He also said that once the potential of shale oil reserves was established, special incentives would be planned for bidding in this area.
The DGH has roped in state-run Indian Oil Corporation (IndianOil) along with Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd (MECL) and French Institution of Research in Earth Sciences, BRGM, to form a consortium to establish the potential of shale oil exploration in India.
Oil shales are generally fine-grained sedimentary rocks containing relatively large amount of organic matter from which significant quantities of shale oil and combustible gas can be extracted.
According to industry experts, preliminary assessment of the sedimentary rocks in India suggest that there could be around 137 billion tonnes of oil available in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh alone. However, the Cambay basin, off the Gujarat Coast, also has shale gas deposits.
“Of this, around 10 per cent is recoverable reserves and India plans to capitalise on that,” said an official of the consortium.
“We would find out the characteristic of the oil and see what is the commercial feasibility of the same. An environment friendly technology needs to be found out and we are working on that,” said Anand Kumar, Director, Research and Development, IndianOil.
The evaluation of oil shale resources involves field work, mapping, and collection of rock samples from surface exposures, drilling of few core holes, preparation of maps and feasibility studies.
