Cabinet approves policy to promote and incentivize new methods of hydrocarbon production

The Centre on Wednesday approved the policy framework to promote and incentivise techniques to improve recovery factor of existing hydrocarbons reserves for augmenting domestic production of oil and gas.

The policy approved by the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will promote enhanced recovery (ER), improved recovery (IR) and unconventional hydrocarbon (UHC) production.

The objective of the policy is to build a supportive ecosystem through academic and research institutes, industry-academia collaboration. It also aim to support and encourage Exploration and Production (E&P) Contractors to deploy ER/IR/UHC Methods/ techniques.

The policy, which will be applicable to all contractual regimes and Nomination fields, is expected to spur new investment, provide impetus to economic activities and generate additional employment opportunities.

It is further expected to facilitate induction of new, cutting-edge technology, innovative and forging technological collaboration to enhance the productivity of existing fields.

An increase of 5 percent in the recovery rate of original in-place volume in oil production is envisaged producing 120 MMT additional oil in next 20 years. While an increase of 3 percent in the natural gas output through such techniques would help the country to produce 52 billion cubic metre of gas over next 20 years.

"The policy also envisages systemic assessment of every field for its ER potential, appraisal of appropriate ER techniques and fiscal incentives to de-risk the cost involved in ER Projects to make the investment financially viable," read the statement.