India Launches Massive Offshore Hydrocarbon Exploration Drive

Why in the news?

Recently, one of India’s largest ever offshore geophysical Survey Program was initiated by Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH).

Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) is the upstream technical regulator.

Established in - 1993 under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Functions - It oversees the sound management of India's oil and gas resources, monitors production, and implements licensing policies.

• Aim- To map over 161,000 km line in Bay of Bengal & adjoining basins over 2 years’ time period to boost oil & Gas Production at Domestic level.

Features of Exploration

• Geographical Spread – The Initiative would cover multiple offshore sedimentary basins along India’s coastlines.
• Saurashtra Basin – West Coast.
• Mahanadi Basin, Krishna – Godavari basin, Bengal Offshore basin, Carvery basin – East Coast
• Andaman Basin – Frontier Regions.
• Oil India Limited & ONGC are working on drilling campaign focusing on deep – sea blocks in Andaman, Mahanadi, Saurashtra & Bengal basin.

Advance Mapping Technology

• 2D/3D Seismic Surveys – Uses controlled sound waves formed from specialized vessels to map the geometry of Subsurface Rock layers & trace potential hydrocarbon traps (Where oil or gas accumulates).
• Stratigraphic Drilling – Involves specialized drilling of non-productive wells to extract rock samples & geological data from completely unexplored basins.
• Andaman Basin – Is Classified as a High potential Frontier exploration zone similar to Major Gas producing fields like Myanmar & Indonesia.
• Policy Shifts – To fast track energy security, India in 2022 opened up nearly 1 Million Sq Km of previously restricted offshore NO-GO area.
• No – Go Areas – Restricted area due to defense, Space or environment Consideration for commercial Explorations.

   For Reference: News 18 | IAS Parliament