Oil, gas contractors to get rights for other hydrocarbons in their areas

Under the plan, the government will sign a new contract with a company if it wants to explore the unconventional form of oil and gas in an already allotted area

The government is set to announce a new policy on unconventional hydrocarbon resources.

Under this, operators of blocks under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (Nelp) and pre-Nelp rounds will be able to access shale oil, shale gas, coal-bed methane (CBM) and gas hydrates from the same blocks where they are extracting conventional oil and gas.

 The move is likely to benefit not only state-run exploration and production companies Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India but also private majors Cairn India (now part of Vedanta) and Reliance Industries (RIL).

A new Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (Help) was