NEW DELHI— India is intensifying its oil and gas exploration efforts by opening nearly one million square kilometers of previously restricted offshore areas, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri informed Parliament on Tuesday.
In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Puri said the move, which took effect in 2022, has “unlocked significant exploration frontiers,” especially in deepwater and frontier regions like the Andaman-Nicobar (AN) offshore basin. The expansion has sparked a resurgence in offshore drilling activity.
Since 2015, exploration and production (E&P) companies operating in India have reported 172 hydrocarbon discoveries, including 62 in offshore areas. Puri emphasized the geological promise of the Andaman-Nicobar basin, located at the tectonic intersection of the Indian and Burmese plates within the Bengal-Arakan sedimentary system. The region features numerous stratigraphic traps — prime structures for hydrocarbon accumulation — and is situated near established petroleum systems in Myanmar and North Sumatra.
Recent major gas finds in Indonesia’s South Andaman offshore basin have further increased global interest in the area due to its geological continuity across the region, the minister noted.
While favorable subsurface conditions provide a strong base, Puri highlighted that the real momentum comes from strategic government reforms and a revamped exploration approach. These include aggressive seismic data acquisition, the initiation of both stratigraphic and exploratory drilling, and increased collaboration with international exploration firms — several of which have expressed keen interest in the newly available frontier blocks.
State-owned oil firms ONGC and Oil India Ltd (OIL) have launched a major exploration campaign in the Andaman ultra-deepwater zone. For the first time, drilling is targeting depths of up to 5,000 meters. One exploratory well, ANDW-7, drilled in the carbonate-rich East Andaman Back Arc region, has yielded promising signs. These include traces of light crude and condensate in core samples and heavier hydrocarbons like C-5 neo-pentane detected in trip gases.
“These findings confirm, for the first time, the presence of an active thermogenic petroleum system in the region, similar to those in Myanmar and North Sumatra,” Puri stated. While commercial reserves have yet to be confirmed, he said the discoveries validate the area’s petroleum potential and pave the way for intensified exploration.
Providing an update on recent outcomes, Puri noted that ONGC has made hydrocarbon discoveries in 20 blocks, with estimated reserves totaling 75 million metric tonnes of oil equivalent (MMTOE). Over the past four years, OIL has reported seven oil and gas finds with reserves of approximately 9.8 million barrels of crude and 2,706.3 million standard cubic meters of natural gas. (Source: IANS)
