New Delhi: Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri has indicated that India could soon witness a significant oil discovery in the Andaman Sea. In an interview published by The New Indian, Puri informed about the government’s ongoing efforts to boost domestic oil and gas exploration which is backed by regulatory reforms and growing investment across India’s energy sector.

He traced this momentum to policy changes that began in 2016 and under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP), India has unlocked new sedimentary basins for exploration. Puri noted that out of India’s 3.5 million square kilometres of sedimentary basins, nearly 1 million square kilometres have been opened for bidding. In OALP Round 9, close to 38% of the bids targeted these newly opened areas and the minister expects that share to grow to 80% in the next round. The latest auction, covering 250,000 square kilometres, is India’s largest to date.

Puri cited Guyana’s experience where ExxonMobil struck oil after drilling over 40 wells, each costing around $100 million. He pointed to ONGC’s drilling activity in 2023-24 as a sign of India’s growing seriousness. “ONGC this year has dug the maximum number of wells. Highest in 37 years,” he said. In financial year 2024, ONGC drilled 541 wells, including 103 exploratory and 438 development wells and ₹37,000 crore was the capital expenditure.

The minister said “Now things are changing, and I’m very confident that we’ll find many more oil fields. Very very quickly,” he said.
Turning to recent legislative reforms, Puri discussed the Oil Fields Regulation and Development Amendment Bill introduced this year. The bill replaces outdated regulations dating back to 1948, which previously covered multiple resource sectors, including coal, minerals and petroleum, often causing regulatory ambiguity. He said “It(the bill) rectifies that. It helps to solve the problems and also achieves the goals for those private companies in terms of no objection certificates, which they could not earlier. The bill has been brought after large-scale interaction with industry players… The rules and regulations that we are implementing under that are also subject to public consultation.”

Puri expressed confidence that these policy changes, combined with potential discoveries, could fuel rapid economic growth. “Apart from these little discoveries which are coming, which could turn out to be very big also, that we find Guyana and then you will go from a $3.7 trillion economy to a $20 trillion economy straight away.”

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Bengaluru, Aug 11 (PTI): In response to a planned three-day strike by ASHA workers starting August 12, the Karnataka Health Department on Monday issued a notice prohibiting all officers and staff from taking leave during the protest period, except in cases of medical emergencies.

Accredited Social Health Activists workers are demanding the fixed honorarium of Rs 10,000 promised by the state government in January. They have announced a continuous state-level protest from August 12 to 14.

The notice stated, “Information about ASHA workers absent from duty within district limits will be collected daily from primary health centres, compiled at the district level, and submitted to the commissionerate by 3 pm during the protest.”

The Health Department also urged community health officers, primary health protection officers, health inspectors, and Anganwadi workers to cooperate in ensuring that health services to the public remain uninterrupted.

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