Cabinet approves ₹84,084 crore 'Samudra Manthan' scheme to boost offshore oil, gas exploration

The Union Cabinet on Friday approved the 'Samudra Manthan' National Offshore Exploration Scheme with an outlay of ₹84,084 crore to accelerate offshore oil and gas exploration and boost domestic energy production.

The central sector scheme of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas will be implemented up to the financial year 2030-31.

"Within India's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the area of the sea over which India has sovereign rights and privileges, there are significant reserves of hydrocarbons, including oil and natural gas," Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at a Cabinet briefing.

"If these resources are properly explored, India can substantially increase its domestic production."

The scheme covers the entire offshore exploration value chain, including large-scale acquisition, processing and interpretation of seismic data, accelerated exploratory drilling in deepwater and ultra-deepwater areas, scientific drilling in frontier basins, and development of common offshore production and evacuation infrastructure.

It also provides for setting up an integrated Oil and Gas Manufacturing and Services Zone, besides support for digital programme management, capacity building, technology adoption, stakeholder engagement and international outreach.

The government expects the scheme to help add more than 600 million metric tonnes of oil equivalent (MMTOE) to the country's hydrocarbon reserves, increase domestic oil and gas production, generate employment, and strengthen indigenous manufacturing .

It also expects the programme to attract substantial investments across the exploration and production value chain and support long-term industrial growth and innovation.

The government said the scheme builds on a series of upstream sector reforms undertaken over the past decade, including opening up almost the entire offshore acreage for exploration, modernising the legislative and contractual framework, and strengthening the National Data Repository.