Multi Organisation Team set up to re-assess hydrocarbon resources in India

Dr M Veerappa Moily, the Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, has given his nod for the constitution of a Multi Organisation Team (MOT) to carry out re-assessment of hydrocarbon resources of India in all its 26 sedimentary basins. Resource assessment is required to be completed within 30 months. The Keshav Dev Malviya Institute of Petroleum Engineering (KDMIPE) of ONGC will act as leader with Director (Exploration) of ONGC as Chairman and Director (Exploration & Development) of Oil India Ltd (OIL) as Co-chairman. A National Level Committee headed Petroleum Secretary will monitor and review the progress of work periodically.
 
It may be recalled that during the course of implementation of pre-NELP (New Exploration Licensing Policy) and NELP rounds and other exploration and production activities, substantial geo-scientific data have been acquired and interpreted. New oil and gas fields have also been discovered by utilising improved geological understanding and new technology. With the increase in exploration spread and quantum jump in availability of geo-scientific data generated under NELP there is a need to revisit the hydrocarbon resource assessment of India.
 
The last such exercise was carried out in 15 sedimentary basins, approximately two decades ago and is overdue for full scale revision in view of the vast amount of data collected since then. There is also an urgent need for the fresh estimation in the remaining eleven sedimentary basins as well, for which no hydrocarbon resources have been estimated so far.