Articles from General Knowledge TodayFrom NELP to OALP : Understanding the Basics.2010-11-28 06:11:00 Suresh Soni

We all know that the 9th Bid round of New Explorat ion Licensing Policy (NELP-IX) was launched on 15th October, 2010.

In NELP-IX, there are 34 explorat ion blocks (8 deepwater, 7 shallowwater and 19 on land blocks) on of fer .

Recent ly Minister of State for Pet roleum & Natural Gas Shri Jit in Prasadamade a statement in Rajya Sabha that "action has been initiated toestablish the National Data Repository (NDR) which is a pre-requisite forformulation of Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP)".Let 's understand what is OALP and how India plans to shif t f rom NELP toOALP.So far our count ry has conducted 8 rounds of NELP and 9th Round isunderway. In these rounds we have known that Domest ic Companies areact ively bidding, but most ly internat ional bidders have not invested inexplorat ion in India. So, the Government of India is willing to review the currentNELP terms and is open to various suggest ions for dif ferent kinds of awardpolices.What is E & P? We know that exploration and extracting oil is called upstream sector ofthe industry. This is called the E&P (Exploration & Production) business.This business is highly technology driven one and needs huge investmentsand cont inuous knowledge upgradat ion.All of us are aware that the days of f inding easy oil and gas are over. Ourcount ry is endowed with about 138 billion barrels of oil and oil equivalentof gas, but these yet to be found resources are believed to be located in thef ront ier, logist ically dif f icult and geologically complex areas and deep & ult radeep waters. So, in order to search and exploit these resources, theexploitat ion technologies also need to be innovat ive.What is the problem?The major problem or hurdle to at t ract the internat ional investment is that ofData Acquisition.

Data means high quality and reliable geoscientif ic data.This data is not available in a systemat ic form for assessment of the

underground risk. The problems involve inadequacy / down qualit y of the dataand non-availabilit y / bot t leneck to get the raw data.How the Data Acquisition is important?There are various organizat ions in India that acquire geo-scient if ic data whichis relevant and necessary for their act ivit ies. This includes data not only forpet roleum explorat ion and development but for other minerals also. It is veryimportant that this data, which is acquired through great ef fort and at hugeexpenditure, is properly preserved, easily accessible and gainfully shared fornat ional development .How the Data is important?The data generat ion is a result of the ef forts of decades of dataacquisition. For a count ry like ours, the data is a "valuable nat ional asset "and it becomes imperat ive for us to safeguard and f ruit fully ut ilize thisnat ional t reasure. Worldwide, the count ries save this kind of data through theirown NDR and we at home also need to take init iat ives in this direct ion.What is NDR?The f irst step towards resolving the above problem is the NDR. NDR refersto National Data Repository. It is worth note that Government of India inenvisaging on an ambit ious project to set up a Nat ional Knowledge Hub (NKH)also known as Nat ional Knowledge Cent re (NKC) in E&P (Explorat ion &Product ion) area in coming few years. The components of NKH/NKC will be

1. Nat ional Data Repository2. Nat ional Processing Cent re3. Nat ional Visualizat ion & Applicat ion Cent re4. Nat ional T raining Cent re5. Nat ional E&P Knowledge Portal

So, NDR is the f irst component of NKC.The NDR is on a proposed state at present.

The object ive of the NDR is to make a repository of reliable explorationand production data for India with provisions for seamless access andon-line data management.The specif ic object ives of NDR are as follows:

1. To validate, store, maintain and reproduce high qualit y and reliablegeoscient if ic data

2. To facilit ate ef f icient data report ing, data exchange, and data t radingamong exist ing players including all geoscient if ic agencies

3. To improve DGH's abilit y to monitor and cont rol the E&P act ivit ies andreport ing

4. To encourage new E & P act ivit ies by providing high qualit y and reliabledata

5. To st rengthen overall geoscient if ic act ivit ies in India6. To support an open acreage system for an improved Global E & P

Business environment in India7. To provide qualit y E & P data for Processing, Interpretat ion and

Visualizat ion Cent res at DGHWhat is OALP and how it is dif f erent f rom NELP?One further step af ter our count ry has an NDR is to shif t f rom NELP to OALP.The necessit y to shif t to OALP is as follows:

1. To remove the barriers in get t ing data for evaluat ion2. To NOT to make the investors wait for the rounds to happen.

So, the major dif ference is that under OALP, oil and gas acreages will beavailable round the year instead of cyclic bidding rounds launched underNew Exploration Licensing policy (NELP).On November 21, 2010, the Ninth Internat ional Conference on Nat ional DataRepository was organized in New Delhi, in which partners f rom 27 count riespart icipated. There is a hope that Conference will create opportunit y for allE&P players including Oil Companies, Government of f icials and policyformulators to get insight into what is being done internat ionally in managingdata, as a nat ional t reasure and inclusion of similar data of other mineralresources through the establishment of NDRs.So the needs to shif t f rom NELP to OALP are summarized as follows:

1. Not availabilit y of Data especially in deep water, ult ra deep water andf ront ier areas.

2. Part ial f reedom at present to choose blocks.3. E & P Companies need to wait form rounds.4. Acreages are retained by the exist ing players.

What is the Current E & P Scenario in the country?In India, the explorat ion began centuries ago. For almost quarter a century theef forts in oil & gas explorat ion and product ion was limited to only twocompanies viz. ONGC and OIL. Af ter NELP-I was launched a decade ago, morethan 70 E&P companies working in India today. So, E&P scenario in India hasimproved sat isfactorily, but st ill t here are needs to improve this sector.

Articles from General Knowledge TodayFrom NELP to OALP : Understanding the Basics.