New Modi Government Plans to Revamp India's E&P Sector

“By allowing exploration during development phase, there is a chance of exploiting zones of interests which can yield more hydrocarbon reserves,” the DGH’s CTO said.

The practices of allowing exploration during development phase, in some cases, are being allowed in blocks offshore Krishna Godavari basin and onshore Rajasthan.

As of now, each confirmed hydrocarbon find has its own development schedule. Some of these standalone discoveries were non-commercial or their development plan was not submitted on time, leaving these resources out of the main development, explained Sinha.

But there will be a change. The government is thinking of adopting a more flexible schedule for developing these discoveries by linking them to the ongoing development, he added.

To increase resources, a timeline will be set to develop the contractor’s last hydrocarbon find in a block. This will be beneficial to the contractor and India as it allows the combined development of all other discoveries in the same block as part of the main field development, Sinha elaborated.

“Once the government approves this flexibility of allowing latest discovery to be added to the main development, we will develop all the small discoveries in a block as cluster project,” he said.

“The government is in the process of carrying out a feasibility study to develop such a cluster project, which will incentivize the development of smaller fields and monetize small pocket of reserves along with the main field development.”