Deepwater oil exploration set to get a push with ‘Samudra Manthan’ amid West Asia crisis

NEW DELHI : The government is set to step up efforts to boost domestic oil and gas production with its Samudra Manthan deepwater exploration programme, which is expected to be rolled out in the next three to four weeks, a senior official told .

The government is also looking to expand upstream investments overseas, including in countries like Venezuela, to strengthen energy security and reduce import vulnerabilities.

“There’s a proposal at the time (for the Samudra Manthan mission). Maybe in four weeks, we can see an allocation or a final decision. The Samudra Manthan mission, when it comes, will be a big policy intervention. It might be the largest programme ever done by India,” the source said.

The National Deep Water Exploration Mission, or the Samudra Manthan programme, was announced by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in August to focus on offshore and ultra-deepwater drilling to achieve energy security.

India remains the world’s third largest importer of crude, meeting around 85 percent of its energy needs through imports.

Petroleum secretary Neeraj Mittal said on May 11 that the government was in the final stages of the Samudra Manthan Programme and an allocation would be announced soon.

“There will be no shortage of investment. The government needs to step in for high-risk activities in the exploration,” he had said.

The West Asia conflict, which has since eased a bit, severely disrupted the country’s energy supplies, as the vital Strait of Hormuz was virtually shut for more than three months.

The official said the government’s focus would be on expanding upstream projects.

“Upstream and downstream co-exists but yes, downstream is related to consumption which is autonomous in nature. Upstream is where you need work to be done. So obviously, that would require more policy bandwidth and effort,” the official said.

Since 2016, the government has brought in several changes to enhance exploration of oil and gas and launching the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) auction to streamline block their auctions.

Under HELP, the government brought in the Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP), allowing investors to carve out blocks of their choice through submission of Expressions of Interest (EoIs).

The government recently launched OALP-11, offering 21 blocks across about 80,228 sq km. The government aims at increasing exploration acreage to 1 million sq km by 2030.

“When the bids open, we are hoping that there’ll be international companies as well participating in those rounds for exploration,” the official said.

One of the key agendas of the government is to boost production of crude and reduce the country’s import dependency. However, the domestic production of crude and gas has remained stagnant.

In FY26, India’s oil production declined by 2.4 percent to 28 million tonnes compared, data from Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell shows. During April-May of FY27, oil production declined to 4.6 MT, down from 4.8 MT in the year-ago period.

Source : Moneycontrol