HIGH-POWERED COMMITTEE ON ENHANCING DOMESTIC OIL AND GAS EXPLORATION

Report Highlights:

• Composition: The Committee was chaired by Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog and comprised Cabinet Secretary, Petroleum Secretary, Economic Affairs Secretary, NITI Aayog CEO and Chairman of Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).
  
  
• Findings:
  • While production of crude oil by National oil companies (NOCs) remained “largely stagnant from 2013-14 onwards” output from fields operated by private companies fell by 16.5 per cent during the same period.
    
    
  • The private operators’ performance was even worse in natural gas extraction.
    
    
  • Profit petroleum — paid by private operators after deducting costs under the production sharing contract regime — nearly halved to Rs 5,960 crore in 2017-18 compared to Rs 11,346 crore in 2013-14.
    
    
  
  
  
• Recommendations:
  • Inspite of private companies performing much worse in both exploration and production in the last five years, the committee has recommended handing over 66 producing oil and gas fields of national oil companies (NOCs) to private companies
    
    
  • The expert panel relied more on the capability of the private sector which, it said, required a shift from Business as Usual approach and to move from revenue-maximisation to production-maximisation for the private sector as well as NOCs.