Page 2 - Offshore Mineral
LS passes bill for fixed 50-year production lease for offshore minerals
A bill to provide a fixed 50-year production lease for offshore minerals was passed by Lok Sabha on Tuesday amid protests by the opposition over the situation in ethnic-violence hit Manipur. Replying to a brief discussion in the House, Coal and Mines Minister Pralhad Joshi said under the Offshore Areas Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment) Bill, 2023, the government seeks to introduce auction as the route to award production lease for offshore minerals. Joshi said the bill also proposes to introduce a composite licence, which is a two-stage operating right granted for the purpose of undertaking exploration followed by production operation. The composite licence would also be granted only through auction by competitive bidding to the private sector, he said. "We are opting for the auction route. These people who are protesting here, their relatives will not be getting anything. This is the reason why they are opposing the bill," Joshi said as opposition members raised ...
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Gas platform explosion off Mexico kills 2 workers, injures 6, 1 missing
An explosion and fire have destroyed an offshore gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico, while two workers died, six were injured and one was missing, officials said. The state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, said the disaster happened on the Nohoch gas transfer platform that it operates on Friday. It said the dead and missing workers were employed by a subcontractor. It did not specify who the six injured worked for. The company's statement said seven ships evacuated a total of 321 workers from the platform. Photos distributed by the company showed several fire boats pumping streams of water onto the still-smoking platform. Octavio Romero, director of Petroleos Mexicanos, said the platform "was totally destroyed" but that several other nearby, linked platforms did not catch fire. There appeared to be little risk of an oil spill, though it was unclear whether the accident might force the company to increase flaring of gas, a process of burning excess gas that pumps large amount
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Govt working on legal framework for quick offshore auction
These offshore blocks contain minerals such as zirconium, tungsten, rare earth elements, etc
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Offshore mineral exploration soon: Mines secretary
About 50-60 blocks would be put on auction, says Balwinder Kumar
 "Offshore mineral exploration soon: Mines secretary")