Sameer Verma

Historic day in India’s quest towards energy security and energy self-sufficiency under the dynamic and firm leadership of PM Sh @narendramodi Ji. Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Amendment Bill 2024 successfully passed in Lok Sabha today! Far-reaching amendments made in the existing legislation will further strengthen and propel India’s energy sector under the leadership of PM Modi Ji, and ensure policy stability, international arbitration, extended lease periods etc. The present global energy scenario and the hydrocarbon landscape has dramatically changed. Hence, there was a need to amend the Act to reflect current realities, national priorities, promote Ease of Doing Business (EoDB), decriminalize provisions and align India’s Exploration and Production (E&P) framework with practices of competing geographies. By virtue of the fact that we are going to rely on conventional energy for some time we need to step up our exploration and production activities. Today’s successful passage of the bill will be a constructive and positive step in this direction. Utilisation of energy is a reasonably good indicator of economic performance. Today we are consuming 5.5 Million Barrels of crude oil in a day. Just three and a half years ago this consumption was 5.0 Million Barrels. If we continue to grow at the rate at which we are, we will go upto 6.5-7.0 Million Barrels Per Day. India’s transformation to being #ViksitBharat will require a large amount of energy in all forms. Steps have been taken to enhance India’s energy exploration and production. Earlier one million sqkm area of our sedimentary basin used to be a ‘No Go’ area. As a result our import dependence was on a rise. We opened up that one million sqkm out of the 3.5 million sqkm of sedimentary basin to encourage and enhance domestic crude production. This has sent positive signals to prospective investors. 76% of total area under exploration has come under active exploration only since 2014. @PMOIndia @PetroleumMin @PIB_India @MIB_India