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In keeping with the strategy of removing bottlenecks in the exploitation of oil and gas blocks that were awarded earlier, the petroleum ministry has proposed a clutch of changes in production-sharing contracts (PSCs). The changes would result in significant liberalisation of the terms of the PSCs and expeditious monetisation of as many as 30 blocks held by ONGC, Reliance Industries,Cairn India, GSPC, Oil India and others.

While placing under review the terms of the New Exploration and Licensing Policy (NELP) whose past nine rounds have barely been successful, the ministry has accorded top priority to increasing production from blocks already awarded where the activities are hampered by rigidities in the PSC terms, among other issues. the ministry had asked PSU explorer ONGC to come up with an action plan to accelerate production at its long-neglected marginal fields.

Sources said the ministry has listed out the changes in PSC norms — about a dozen of them — for pre-NELP and NELP blocks in a note that is expected to be taken up by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) later this month or early September.

This is in sync with the government’s endeavour to ramp up production of oil and gas from domestic fields and cushion the country’s vulnerability to external oil shocks given that 80 Percent  of the oil required by the country is imported. India’s crude oil import bill touched $143 billion in FY14, up from $100 billion in FY11.

Source-On Request