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Oil And Gas Exploration
India is embarking on what could be one of the world's first large-scale programmes to fund high-risk offshore oil and gas exploration directly from the national budget, wagering that the country's largely untapped deepwater reserves can help curb its growing dependence on imported crude and gas. The Union Cabinet last week approved the Rs 84,084-crore Samudra Manthan National Offshore Exploration Scheme, under which the government will fund half of the the cost of drilling a deepsea and ultra-deep water exploration well or Rs 650 crore, whichever is lower, directly from the budget, officials said. "This perhaps is the first time that any government in the world is funding risk exploration from the budget," an official said, adding that in all, 60 deepwater and ultra-deepwater exploration wells over the next five years will be funded from the budget. Besides underwriting part of the cost of drilling exploration wells, the government will part-fund common infrastructure, including ..
Top Trump administration officials fresh off touring one of the country's largest oil fields in the Alaska Arctic headlined an energy conference led by the state's Republican governor on Tuesday that environmentalists criticised as promoting new oil and gas drilling and turning away from the climate crisis. Several dozen protesters were outside Governor Mike Dunleavy's annual Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference in Anchorage, where US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin were featured speakers. The federal officials were continuing a multiday trip aimed at highlighting President Donald Trump's push to expand oil and gas drilling, mining and logging in the state. The trip has included meetings with pro-drilling groups and officials, including some Alaska Native leaders on the petroleum-rich North Slope, and a visit to the Prudhoe Bay oil field near the Arctic Ocean that featured selfies near the ..
Cairn Oil & Gas, part of Vedanta Group, has signed a memorandum of understanding with United Nations Environment Programme's flagship methane reporting and mitigation initiative - Oil & Gas Methane Partnership (OGMP) 2.0, making it the first oil and gas producer in India to commit to effective reduction of methane emissions. OGMP 2.0 established a comprehensive framework that includes best practices for emissions management and a robust reporting system. It emphasises accurate measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) of methane emissions to drive reductions effectively. "Under this MoU, Cairn will establish a 5-year methane reduction target and transparently report its progress to OGMP. This would enable Cairn to analyse its emission profiles and utilise the data to mitigate emissions cost-effectively. With this partnership, Cairn reaffirms its commitment to accelerate its efforts towards becoming Net Zero Carbon by 2030," the company said in a statement. OGMP 2.0 covers
The Union environment ministry has granted in-principle approval to divert around 4.50 hectares of forest land in Assam, home to the endangered hoolock gibbon, for oil and gas exploration by a Vedanta Group company. Cairn Oil & Gas will carry out exploratory oil drilling in the ecosensitive zone of the Hoollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary in Jorhat district, the sole habitat for India's only ape species. The ministry's Forest Advisory Committee approved the diversion of 4.49 hectares of forest land during a meeting on August 27, according to minutes published on the Parivesh portal. On August 8, Assam's principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) and chief wildlife warden recommended the clearance, saying that the project served "national interest". The project site is located within the ecosensitive zone of the sanctuary, an area also used by wild elephants to move between the sanctuary and the Dessoi Valley Reserve Forest, the official noted. "Conservation and management