A Need to Remove Red Tape and start taking Initiatives in the Oil Sector - India

One of the biggest hurdles that Oil companies operating  in India today face is getting ‘clearances’ from numerous agencies . In fact the progress in exploration work in over 50 oil block awarded under NELP ( New Exploration Licensing Policy) has been slowed down due to clearance hurdles as on January 2013. Speedy clearances of these blocks will not only benefit   oil companies like ONGC, RIL and Cairn but also benefit the country as billions of dollars of various Oil and Gas projects are stuck up in Red tape. The government has set up a Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) in January 2013 to expedite the clearance of high valued projects. Only time will tell how far CCI does goes in delivering what it has promised.

One of the latest victims of this might be OVL ( ONGC Videsh Limited)- Conoco Phillips deal of Kashagan feild of Kazakhstan.  According to some sources the China National Petroleum Corporation ( CNPC) is trying to get the 8.4% stake from Conoco Phillips at Kashagan. The president of China is lobbying hard to get this deal in favour of the chinese.  Indian government has not shown any such high level government initiatives and is yet to approve this deal on paper.

This might prove costly for the nation in the near future. 

Future Of Oil In India

The world waits for no one, with rapid strides in the field of unconventional oil sources and new technologies, countries world over have started taking effective measures to safeguard their energy needs as the crude oil prices have been highly volatile in past few decades. As per international Energy Agency, India, China and west Asia will account for 60% of worlds energy demand by 2035. One of the ways in which India can work towards achieving more is by promoting effective oil conservation strategies.

Some of the steps that the country needs to take are:

1. Improve the recovery factors of existing reservoirs
2. Promote exploration and production of Shale Oil and Shale Gas in the country 
3. Increase the pipe line network 
4. Build smarter refineries
5. Develop alternate sources of energy
6. Use of state of the art advanced IT solutions 
7. Utilize the vast manpower
8. Maintain safety standards

It is entirely up to India as to what it intends to achieve. Being energy - independent should be the primary aim of the country.