New policy to decide fate of PMT fields

Panel under an additional secretary in ministry of petroleum & natural gas has been formed to formulate the policy

With some of the production sharing contracts for oil and gas fields nearing expiry, the government plans to come out with a policy for granting extension to these PSCs.

A committee under an additional secretary in the ministry of petroleum and natural gas has been formed to formulate such a policy.

Among the PSCs that are expiring are the ones for Panna Mukta and Tapti fields which are being operated by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Reliance Industries Ltd and British Gas.

The PSC for the fields expires in 2019. Further investment by the joint venture partners would depend on whether they would get an extension.

The government had signed PSCs for awarding small, medium and discovered fields to private joint ventures prior to the launch of New Exploration and Licensing Policy.

The tenure of some of these PSCs would expire even before the recoverable reserves from these fields have been produced.

The six-member committee would submit its recommendations by April-end.