NEW DELHI, Dec 23 - To encourage exploration and production activities and to promote oil and gas investment in Northeastern region, the Union Government has initiated formulation of a Hydrocarbon Vision Document 2030 for the NE region.
The total conventional prognosticated hydrocarbon resources in the North East is estimated to be of the order of 5,040 million metric tonne, out of which 2,224 MMT has been established so far.
This was stated by Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan in a Lok Sabha reply. He further disclosed that the oil produced in the North East is not sufficient to run Assam�s four refineries, leading the Centre to import crude from outside. During the last three years, oil production in the NE has decreased, however, gas production has increased. Crude oil produced in the region is inadequate to meet the installed capacity of four refineries in the NE region with combined capacity of seven MMPTA.
Imported crude oil is currently being brought to the region to partially enhance the pool of crude oil available for NE refineries and processed at Bongaigaon Refinery of IOCL, the Minister said.
Till date, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, Oil India Limited, private and joint ventures have conducted 70,843 Line Kilometres (LKMs) of Two-D seismic survey and 14,833 sq km of Three-D seismic survey.
The Government of India has formulated a plan to conduct Two-D seismic survey in all sedimentary basins of India including the North East, where scanty data is available. In 2014-2015, crude oil and natural gas production from NE was about 4.542 MMT and 4,131 Million Metric Cubic Metre (MMSCM) respectively.
In Assam, OIL produces 3.405 MMT of oil and 2,509 MMSCM of natural gas, while ONGC produces 1.061 MMT of oil and 449 MMSCM of gas.
During the last five years, ONGC and OIL have made an expenditure of Rs 5,120 crore and Rs 6,117 crore on exploration in NE, respectively. In addition, private and JV companies have made an investment of USD 464.03 million.
