Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum and Natural Gas, will be making an official visit to Singapore and London from 9-14 September 2016. During these visits, he will conduct Road Shows for the 67 Discovered Small Fields (DSF). Singapore and London have been chosen for organising the Road Shows as both are key financial centres for global oil and gas community to publicize and attract investments.
During his visit to Singapore from 9-10 September, Sh Pradhan will inaugurate the Road Show and address the representatives of oil and gas industry, followed by a Roundtable interaction. He is scheduled to meet equity investors and leaders of hydrocarbon industry and speak on “Oil and Gas Sector in India: Changing Landscape”. He will also interact with eminent personalities working in the sector in Singapore. Sh Pradhan will visit Floating Production Storing Offshore (FPSO) Conversion Facility at Keppel Shipyard and Jurong Refinery and Petrochemical hub.
Shri Pradhan, during his visit to the UK, will be inaugurating the Road Show and a data room relating to the DSF bid round. He will interact with the leaders of UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) on the hydrocarbon sector reforms taking place in India and have one-to-one meeting with prospective bidders, representatives of commodity exchange market and regulators. A Roundtable with UK financial institutions has also been scheduled where Sh Pradhan will discuss recent policy initiatives taken in the oil and gas sector in India. While in UK, Sh Pradhan will meet his British counterpart Rt Hon Greg Clark, MP in London and also Scottish Energy Minister in Aberdeen. He will address a gathering at the Somerville College, Oxford University on ‘Policy Initiatives in India to increase access to Clean Energy’ followed by an interaction with leading scientists.
Earlier, in July 2016, Sh Pradhan had launched the Discovered Small Fields Bid Round-2016 at at Houston, USA. In India, DSF bidding was launched in New Delhi on 25th May, 2016 by Sh Pradhan. Under this bid round, 67 DSF are being offered for international bidding. These fields are spread over 9 sedimentary basins and will be offered in 46 contract areas. These fields are projected to yield 625 million barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas and spread over 1,500 sq kms in onland, shallow water and deep water areas.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has introduced progressive administrative and fiscal procedures in the bidding process in sync with international best practices. The DSF policy provides for single uniform license for producing all kinds of hydrocarbons in place and other resources to be identified in future. Other incentives offered under this policy includes no cess on the oil production, upto 100% participation by foreign companies, moderate royalty structure, customs duty exemptions and complete marketing and pricing freedom for the sale of produced crude oil and natural gas, no mandatory work program or relinquishment of contract area, operational autonomy and limited regulatory burden enabling provision for sharing of infrastructure and flexibility for unit development in case of reservoirs extending beyond contract area for joint development.
