Multi-client seismic policy to be notified soon

One-time licence fee of $10,000 for seismic survey rights, govt not to share profit with contractors

If  you are a contractor planning to take part in 2-dimension (2D) and 3-dimension (3D) seismic surveys in India, get ready to shell out a one-time licence fee of $10,000 under the multi-client seismic survey policy. The good news, however, is the government will not seek any profit share from contractors.

A senior official from the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons told Business Standard that inter-ministerial discussions on the multi-client seismic policy were on, and the policy would be notified shortly.

“We will notify the policy by February 15, 2014. We are, however, not planning to have any profit share with the contractors who plan to acquire data under this policy,” the official said on the sidelines of Petrotech 2014.

“We want to encourage data acquisition itself and we do not see this as a revenue making tool. The data is far more important to us,” the official added.

The government had, over a year ago, announced its plans to put in place an investor-friendly multi-client seismic survey policy.

With over half of India’s onshore and offshore sedimentary areas having almost nil seismic coverage, the  policy, the official said, presented a lot of scope for data acquisition in his manner.

“This will be revolutionary policy drafted by the DGH. We have learnt from our earlier multi-client experience and have drafted the policy accordingly,” the official added.

As part of the policy, onshore and offshore segments will be split into zones  and contractors will have to pay a one-time licence fee of $10,000. The contractors will have the right to complete 2D and 3D surveys in two years and on completion, contractors can own data for 10 years and sell it as desired.

“This means contractors will have 12 years for exclusive sale of data after which the data will return to us,” the DGH official added.