‘Both initiatives are welcome moves and we would commit ourselves with focused attention aligned with the national priorities, and pursue our exploration initiatives.’

Photograph: Kind courtesy Oil India Ltd.

The National Deepwater Mission will be a game changer for the oil & gas exploration and production (E&P) space, helping bring mega investments, Ranjit Rath, chairman and managing director of state-run explorer Oil India Ltd (OIL) told Business Standard in an exclusive interview.

The company has already started working on a Rs 2,500 crore deepwater campaign in the Andaman basin, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced the launch of a National Deepwater Mission in his Independence Day speech. What is the larger strategy?

This is a flagship initiative being launched by the government under the aegis of ministry of petroleum and natural gas (MoPNG).

Around 99 per cent of the No-Go zone of Indian deepwater in the Exclusive Economic Zone — which is around 1 million square kilometres — has already been unlocked.

Of this, OIL has secured 40,000 square km in the open acreage licensing policy (OALP) bidding round IX.

We are also evaluating blocks and looking for international collaboration in OALP X and also farm-in opportunities in OALP IX.

Given the fact that this is happening for the first time in the country, the initiative launched by the honourable PM would be a game changer for all of us. This is because of two reasons.

One, in a mission mode this will bring focused attention of the E&P operators in the deepwater of the Indian sub-continent.

Secondly, and this is more critical, the global NOCs and the large multinational oil companies will look at India as an investment destination in the exploration landscape.

These two positive factors will actually help the NOCs.

On the critical minerals front, a serious attempt is underway to enhance exploration for critical minerals and rare earths.

Post the announcement by the honourable finance minister in the last budget, the critical mission was launched.

Aligning with these national priorities, OIL has already secured two blocks, including a graphite and vanadium block in Arunachal Pradesh, and a potash block in Rajasthan.

Both graphite and vanadium are going to play a crucial role in the ongoing EV revolution in the country, and potash is part of the 100 per cent import substitution initiative for food security.

So, both of these initiatives are welcome moves and we would commit ourselves with focused attention aligned with the national priorities, and pursue our exploration initiatives.

Deepwater Exploration is costly and technologically intensive. you think the oil PSUs have the wherewithal for this, or would it require roping in large foreign energy giants known to be stronger on the technology front too?

The honourable PM has announced two missions. First is deepwater exploration for oil & gas. Normally companies carry out initial seismic acquisition processing and interpretation and, based on the prospectivity established, they undertake drilling.

On this front, we are already in active engagement with international oil companies for collaboration on two things — risk sharing and technology partnership.

As far as the area of critical minerals is concerned, it is primarily on the surface and on-land, but deepwater remains a key focus area there too.

In either case, collaboration will help Indian entities to manage the technological challenges.

Do you think the ongoing issues caused by Russian sanctions and the US tariffs could have played a part in the realisation for the need to launch such a mission, or this effort has been in the works for some time?

I would assign a weighted average to both the possibilities.

Efforts to bring deepwater exploration in focus have been going on since the current reform of the E & P sector began in 2022 for unlocking the Exclusive Economic Zone.

However, this latest announcement will give a boost to it. Of course, it would be apt to say that the current geopolitical situation warrants a focused attention and that is how this has happened.

So, it is a collective strategy for boosting the country’s E & P profile.

The immediate need of the hour for the deepwater mission is a big discovery in the deepwater basin.

Can you give us a sense of Oil India’s own capex plans in the area of deepwater exploration?

The first campaign that we are running for seismic work in the deepwater is of the size of around $100 million.

Once that is done, we will draw an idea of the drilling commitments because we have secured these blocks through bidding and they do not necessarily require a commitment for drilling.

The ongoing exploration we are carrying out in Andaman offshore is another deepwater campaign of around Rs 2,500 crore.

We have already drilled the first well there and the work on the second well is underway currently.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff