India eyes major oil discovery in Andaman Sea, says Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri
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 The bill replaces outdated regulations dating back to 1948, which previously covered multiple resource sectors, including coal, minerals and petroleum, often causing regulatory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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23-year-old woman found dead at Delhi home; suicide suspected
New Delhi (PTI): A 23-year-old woman was found dead in her house in Delhi's Prem Nagar area, with police suspecting it to be a case of suicide, an official said on Tuesday.
The deceased, identified as Anjali Singh, was found motionless in her room on Monday by her sister and her neighbour.
Police said her father, Vinod Kumar Singh (51), told them that he and his wife were away at work at the time of the incident, while their son and the other daughter were also not at home at the time of the incident.
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According to the family, the room in which Anjali was found was locked from the inside. The door was later forcibly opened by a neighbour and her sister with the help of a crowbar.
Her body was found lying on the bed inside the room, police said.
Preliminary inquiry revealed that Anjali had allegedly hanged herself using a piece of cloth tied to the ceiling fan.
It is suspected that the noose eventually might have loosened or torn off, resulting in her being found lying on the bed.
Family members informed the police that Anjali was a final-year student of a librarian science course from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). About a week ago, her final-year examination results were declared, and she had failed, following which she had been under depression, they said.
The family has not raised any allegation of foul play, police said, adding that no suicide note or external injury marks were found on the body during the initial inspection.
Inquest proceedings have been initiated in the matter as per the law. The body has been sent for post-mortem examination to ascertain the exact cause of death, and further investigation is underway, police added.
