Decision on two-year drilling holiday soon

The Union government is expected to take a decision in two weeks on providing a two-year extension of the date for starting all drilling and seismic activities, according to Petroleum Secretary MS Srinivasan.

"All the major exploration companies, including RIL and ONGC, have sought a two-year extension to undertake activities under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), citing technical hitches, non-availability of drilling and seismic rigs and adverse weather conditions. Based on the combined requests and the data that we collected, we are currently examining the issue. A decision on this is expected to be made within 15 days," Srinivasan said.

He was speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of a three-day international conference and exposition of the Society of Petroleum Geophysicists (SPG) that kicked off in Hyderabad on Monday.

On the reports of imminent petrol and diesel price hike, Union Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, who inaugurated the conference, said a meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) was scheduled to be held in Delhi on January 17, where a decision on the price hike would be taken.

"Until then, I cannot comment on whether the prices will be increased or decreased and to what extent," he added.

Later, inaugurating Southeast Asia's first underground liquid petroleum gas (LPG) storage cavern project in Visakhapatnam, the minister also hinted a likely increase in LPG and kerosene prices.

"There has been no price increase on LPG and kerosene since the last four years," he pointed out.