DGH NEWS

During the drilling of the well, four hydrocarbon zones were encountered in the Dharvi Dungar (DD) formation, the company noted. Cairn Oil & Gas, a subsidiary of the Vedanta group, has announced a new oil discovery in a key exploration block in Barmer, very close to its prolific Rajasthan block RJ-ON-90/1.

In order to save the time of the oil and gas producers, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has introduced a single-window clearance system. Through this system, upstream companies will be connected to various arms of the government which will help them in electronic filing of the applications. The government has stated that the time lost in a slow grant of permits reduces the time of firms for actual groundwork.

India's regulatory body DGH has ruled out ONGC's plan to privatise its biggest oil and gas fields. The regulator instead asked for the detailed data of the top 47 fields of ONGC in order to monitor production and projects to raise output. On March 20th, DGH wrote to ONGC and OIL to submit all "data pertaining to 59 nomination fields of NOCs by second week of July 2019".

The Government of India is expecting hydrocarbon exploration area to double to 300,000 sq km by 2020. While the first round of licensing under OALP has already increased the exploration area to 150,000 sq km last year, the second and third rounds are expected to double this figure. An official from DGH revealed that the access to seismic data has enabled the government to offer new acreages to companies.

In an attempt to reduce natural gas flaring from its oilfields, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has asked oil producers in the country to take measures for the same. The sector regulator recently reviewed the efforts of oil producing firms in keeping a check on natural gas flaring. India presently burns almost 2.6% of the net gas produced. Analysts believe such measures would aid the green cause.

According to bid information available with DGH, Vedanta-owned Cairn India will attract a penalty of $0.1 million if it fails to fulfil exploration commitment for the 41 oil blocks won under OALP. Award of blocks were based on the commitment to explore and drill for oil and gas, and government’s share in the hydrocarbons produced. DGH gave equal weightage to both these parameters.

An official probe has found Reliance Industries’ sale of its entire CBM output to itself in violation of contractual terms and state policy on CBM. The probe finding can force Reliance to terminate the gas-sales deal and re-auction further produce. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned RIL commenced production of CBM at Madhya Pradesh mines in 2017.

The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) yesterday announced the results of the maiden open acreage auction, with Vedanta Group winning big. The auction received 110 bids for the 55 blocks on offer, and Vedanta received licenses for 41 of them. Vedanta played aggressive in the auction, placing bids on the entire blocks on auction. ONGCs conservative bids landed it only 2 blocks, while OIL won licences to 9 blocks.

A new assessment by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has revealed that India possesses 42 billion tonnes of oil equivalent reserves. Oil reserves in India were projected to be around 28.09 billion tonnes in 1996. The newly assessed data shows a 49% jump from the previous estimates. The report claims that the Mumbai Offshore and Krishna-Godavari basins contribute the most to the country’s energy future with the maximum reserves.

In a bid to increase its reserve base, Vedanta Limited is planning to invest $2.3 billion towards CAPEX on its oil and gas activities. Vedanta is targeting an increase in production from the current 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day to 300,000 boepd over the next few years. Under the OALP auction, Vedanta recently bid for all 55 blocks on offer in the first round.

The second auction of small discovered oil and gas blocks in India was launched yesterday. The South Asian nation is looking to quickly monetize its hydrocarbon resources. In the first week of September, the bidding for 59 fields will begin which will close on December 18. Oil Ministry informed that the blocks offered under the latest round have reserves of about 1.4 billion barrels.

The Indian Oil Ministry has rejected Directorate General of Hydrocarbon’s (DGH) reference that companies be allowed to carry forward exploration in their producing fields irrespective of its effect on the government’s share in the profit. This decision is being owed to an informal calculation by the ministry where the loss of thousands of crores was estimated in case DGH’s proposal was approved.