India's Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas, Jitin Prasada said that the Government is moving gradually but inexorably towards the Open Acreage Licensing System (OALP) from the current New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP). OALP will enable bidders to bid for blocks on offer at any time of the year. Prasada said that data for NELP blocks would be made available to the bidders through the National Data Repository (NDR).
NDR is expected to play a much larger and significant role in the E&P scenario in the years to come.
The Minister expressed hope that that the Conference will create opportunity for all E&P players including Oil Companies, Government officials and policy formulators to get insight into what is being done internationally in managing data, as a national treasure and inclusion of similar data of other mineral resources through the establishment of NDRs.
Prasada during the inauguration of Ninth International Conference on NDR said: “It is indeed a privilege for me to address such a distinguished and learned body of technical experts on a subject that is of immense importance to our countries. The importance and the timeliness of this conference are clear from the fact that participants from 27 countries are attending it and will be sharing their knowledge & expertise on this subject.
There are various organizations in India that acquire geo-scientific data which is relevant and necessary for their activities. This includes data not only for petroleum exploration and development but for other minerals also. It is very important that this data, which is acquired through great effort and at huge expenditure, is properly preserved, easily accessible and gainfully shared for national development. It is here the concept of National Data Repository (NDR) acquires significance. The Government of India has recognized the need and importance of gathering all the available geo-scientific data available in India under one roof so that it is easily available to all the agencies that require it. I am very happy that this important subject will be deliberated by this august gathering in the following days.
The E&P business is a highly technology driven one and needs huge investments and continuous knowledge upgradation. All of us are aware that the days of finding easy oil and gas are over. We are endowed with about 138 billion barrels of oil and oil equivalent of gas, but these yet to be found resources are believed to be located in the frontier, logistically difficult and geologically complex areas and deep & ultra deep waters. So, in order to search and exploit these resources, the exploitation technologies also need to be innovative.
This kind of situation obviously needs better use and application of new technology as well as the existing knowledge already available with us through decades of efforts. India is one of the very few countries where exploration for oil began more than a century ago. For almost seven to eight decades, the efforts were limited to two National Oil Companies (NOCs), namely ONGC and OIL. At the moment, there are more than 70 E&P companies working in India after the introduction of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) about 10 years ago. Therefore, friends, we can proudly say that the E&P scenario in India has improved dramatically during the past decade or so. The recent discoveries of oil and gas fields have been truly outstanding and reflect the relentless efforts put in by the Government of India, the DGH and the E&P companies operating in India. In addition to the conventional oil and gas, the government of India is also seriously pursuing options such as Coal Bed Methane, Gas Hydrates etc.
The efforts of decades have resulted in enormous data generation, which is a valuable national asset. Hence it becomes imperative for us to safeguard and fruitfully utilize this national treasure. As I see, globally, immense efforts are being directed towards safeguarding the National E&P data by most of the regulatory agencies through establishment of National Data Repositories (NDR) which fulfill the role of specialized centers for preserving, standardizing, and retrieving data on demand by user agencies. We in India have also taken initiatives in this direction through the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons which has initiated the process of establishing an NDR mainly to cater to the needs of E&P sector, research institutes and for academia. The NDR will constitute the base for the Knowledge Hub that will be established. These initiatives are expected to give the much-needed boost to the R&D activities in the country and also help the industry through data integration and knowledge dissemination.
Nevertheless there remains a need to share the experience of global experts in this field who have vast experience in the management of Data and operation of NDR. This conference is one of such steps in this direction. I am happy that India is the first Asian country to organize such a conference and I congratulate the organizers for this initiative. Ladies and gentlemen, the government of India is moving gradually but inexorably towards the Open Acreage Licensing System (OALP) from the current New Exploration Licensing Policy. The OALP will enable bidders to bid for blocks on offer at any time of the year. Data for these blocks would be made available to the bidders through the NDR. Thus, the NDR is expected to play a much larger and significant role in the E&P scenario in the years to come.
I am confident that the conference will create the opportunity for all E&P players including Oil Companies, Government officials and policy formulators to get insight into what is being done internationally in managing data, as a national treasure and inclusion of similar data of other mineral resources through the establishment of NDRs. International Oil Companies will share their experience on benefits and pitfalls of establishing NDRs. Hopefully the conference will also create a platform for discussing regional cooperation on the subject of managing data and information.
In the end, I would like to inform you that the importance accorded to this cause can be gauged from the fact that the intensive E&P is a prominent item in our party’s manifesto to make our country more and more self-sufficient. I am sure, the deliberations and outcome of the conference will be of immense value not only for establishing and operation of NDR in India but also will be a rich and valuable experience for all the participants. I hope the participants and guests especially from other countries would enjoy their stay and will get a taste of India’s cultural and culinary diversity during their stay”.