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Oil and gas production set to increase manifold

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI Jan. 11. India may be able to dramatically increase its oil and gas production, judging by the geological studies which indicate that onshore and offshore structures are highly prospective. They show that there is a possibility of many parts of the country, including the Himalayas, the northeast region and offshore areas off the east and south coast, yielding huge oil and gas reserves.

Disclosing this here today, the Director-General, Hydrocarbons, Avinash Chandra, said there was ample geological evidence to show that India's hydrocarbon reserves of oil and gas could dramatically increase by two to three times to around 32 million tonnes — up by 18 per cent. The DGH survey had shown that the east coast's deep-water resources alone were seven billion tonnes and not four billion tonnes, as estimated earlier. The current global trend revolved around discovery of bigger oil and gas fields or "turbidite giant fields'' in the deep water blocks.

He said India was also on the deepwater map of the world with the giant discoveries of Reliance Industries Limited and Cairn Energy in the Krishna-Godavari offshore block. In fact, the hydrocarbon possibility in these blocks was predicted by the DGH in Petrotech-99 itself. The east coast had the potential to match or surpass the west coast's production, he claimed.

In the Himalayan region, the sedimentary data was similar to that of the Andes and the Rocees range of mountains. Since these regions had so much oil and gas reserves, there was no reason why the Himalayas could not have them as well.

Making a presentation on the "Prospectivity of Indian Basins and New Finds'' at the Petrotech 2003, Mr. Chandra said the Assam-Arrakan basin had some 14 exposed anticlines, including one substructure of the Agartala dome. He felt there was a lot of opportunity to explore hydrocarbons in this sector as the features indicated the possibility of huge reserves.

As for the northeast, it had the capability of having world class discoveries. Here too, the structural styles had striking similarities with the premier geological structures of Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Regarding the eastern coast, he said that the DGH had mapped around 80 plays and the regulator had found that the Cauvery-Pallar region had mature shells, a feature similar to the gas discoveries made by the Reliance Industries and the Cairn Energy in the KG basin.

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