India's Oil and Gas Exploration: Transforming Energy Landscape

India attracted significant investments in its oil and gas exploration sector through the NELP and OALP rounds, leading to numerous discoveries. Despite challenges in clearances and cost recovery, policy reforms like HELP and DSF are transforming the sector to be more transparent and investor-friendly.

India has drawn over USD 36 billion through its oil and gas exploration initiatives held before 2014, notably under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), leading to 177 significant discoveries, according to a Petroleum Ministry report.

While NELP helped widen exploration areas and introduced foreign investments, its framework was replaced in 2016 by the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) to tackle previous shortcomings. This change to a Revenue Sharing Contract (RSC) model aligns India's practices with global standards.

Despite accomplishments, NELP faced delays in environmental clearances and disputes over cost recovery. The report underscores ongoing reforms to improve business ease in India's exploration sector, bringing more transparency, eased operation, and increased autonomy for investors.

(With inputs from agencies.)