With the unmatched fiscal incentives offered by the Indian government like the 7-year tax holiday, there is substantive value in every dollar invested by global players in the Indian E&P ecosystem. ONGC CMD Rajesh Kumar Srivastava said this while flagging the attractive investment opportunities in India, to global E&P players at Abu Dhabi, on the side-lines of ADIPEC 2022. The event was organized by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) on 2 November 2022.

CMD, ONGC, R K Srivastava addressing the audience

India – the 7^th largest country and the largest democracy in the world is opening up its Energy Sector for E&P players to collaborate and make investments towards increasing the indigenous production of India.

With this objective in perspective, the Union Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has set out to achieve the desired objectives at ADIPEC 2022, like building upon the conversation with interested E&P players via active engagement, learning from the value proposition and offerings of other countries for further create differentiated value proposition for Indian E&P landscape, leverage the ecosystem of O&G presence: Connect with potential investors and partners and advance the promotion of India’s story as an emerging E&P destination, connect with OFS providers and other players for partnership opportunities, knowledge sharing, and networking opportunities and establish contact with new sets of potential E&P investors and communicate the new opportunities in the Indian E&P landscape.

An interactive meet was organized on the sidelines of ADIPEC 2022 on 2 November 2022 at Hotel Dusit Thani, Abu Dhabi; targeting the possible global investors who were interested in investing in India.

A roadshow to interact with E&P players on investment opportunities in India was organized by Directorate General of Hydrocarbons at Hotel Dusit Thani on 2 November 2022.

India was represented by Director (E-I), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas Vinod Seshan, CMD-ONGC R K Srivastava, CMD-OIL Dr. Ranjit Rath, ED-Corporate Strategy & Planning, DGH, Gautam Sinha and DGM (Geophysics), DGH, A K Sharma. MD-OVL, Rajarshi Gupta, Director (T&FS)-ONGC, Om Prakash Singh and Director (Exploration)-OVL, Sanjeev Tokhi also interacted with the prospective stakeholders.

While responding to the queries of E&P players, CMD, ONGC R K Srivastava highlighted the huge untapped potential and opportunities in Deepwaters on all three sides of the peninsula. “A rapidly growing nation and the available basket offers both challenges & opportunities for everyone who wants to benefit mutually”, he remarked. While answering a query related to age of available seismic data, Mr. Srivastava said, “With an exploration history of 6 decades, a variety of data is available – both latest and legacy as well as assessment data for the players to tap into and make informed decisions.” As far as air-borne and gravity surveys are concerned, they are also being used in conjunction with seismic data and are yielding results, he added.

“For India to be more competitive, it is going to be about size and fiscal benefits. Prospectivity will come as more areas are being opened up in an aggressive manner”, emphasized CMD, ONGC. And the differentiator is going to be the tax benefits on offer. It is a much-incentivized investment opportunity for the taking, he underscored.

Earlier, Director (Exploration), MoPNG, Vinod Seshan, made a presentation on Investment opportunities in India, highlighting the key policy reforms institutionalized to increase ease of doing business like freedom to carve out & select blocks for bidding, single unified license for conventional hydrocarbons, transparent qualifying and evaluation criteria for all players, etc. “We are here to explore opportunities to expand our operations and increase our indigenous production. Even a 1-3% increase helps us to reduce our imports”, he remarked.

CMD, Oil India Limited, Dr. Ranjit Rath made a presentation on Expansion plans and investment opportunities with Oil India across various regions of India, both Onshore and Offshore.

DGM (Geophysics)-DGH, Ajai Kumar Sharma, made a presentation on the potential of Indian Sedimentary Basins with details of the available acreage and related data for Andaman Offshore, Mahanadi Offshore, Saurashtra Offshore, Cauvery Offshore, KG Offshore, Bengal Offshore, Assam Shelf and Cambay.

Gautam Sinha from DGH shared some of the ‘ease of business’ incentives offered by the Indian government like opening up of a permanent data center at Houston, lowering of data cost and quality improvement of data.

DGM (Reservoir)-ONGC, Ravi Shanker Chaudhary gave a detailed presentation on the Opportunities in the Indian E&P Sector, highlighting the renewed exploration thrust of ONGC and opportunity basket, focus on International Partnerships through outreach at the highest level, untapped potential in deepwaters of India, technology interventions, etc.

The event saw enthusiastic participation from leaders of National oil companies, international E&P companies, service providers, Financial Institutions, and the wider industry players across the hydrocarbon value chain.