Centre eases oil exploration norms, allows access outside contract areas

The government also empowered the DGH by allowing it to approve the cases of excess cost recovery up to 20%

In a move that may ease the oil exploration regime in India, the government has allowed producers in the country to go beyond their assigned areas in case the same reservoir continues outside the contracted areas. This would help an operator undertake seismic studies, understand the data, and develop a discovery more efficiently. 
 
Overlapping of reservoir is a contentious issue between Reliance Industries (RIL) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in the Krishna Godavari basin. The June 25 decision of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) easing the permission norms for extended exploration will not affect