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By Promit Mukherjee and Nidhi Verma
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India wants to accelerate discovery efforts to establish the country's potential for oil and shale gas and has asked companies to submit a plan, said two sources Sunday. industry.
In late 2013, India gave rights to Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. to explore oil and shale gas reserves. However, after years of exploratory reservations, he has not found significant resources.
In January, the Hydrocarbons Directorate (DGH), India's hydrocarbon regulatory body, held a meeting with representatives of various private and government companies to urge them to exploit the shale resources in the oil and gas blocks. that they already held, said a source to the authority.
"The idea is to bring shale to the map of India or just close the chapter once and for all three years from now," said a manager. one of the companies that attended the meeting.
India is a gas-poor country and imports almost half of its annual natural gas consumption. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants India to be a gas – based economy and increase the share of gas in the country 's energy mix, which drops from 6.5% to 15% by 2030.
All developers of coal bed methane (CBM) were invited to the January meeting, said the executive.
"A joint group plan is also under study, which will serve as a platform for sharing knowledge and infrastructure, which could help accelerate the development of shale," said the executive.
Currently, CBM gas is produced by three companies in India: Reliance Industries Ltd, owned by Mukesh Ambani, the Ruia brothers, Essar Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Ltd. and Great Eastern Energy Corp Ltd.
CBM is a kind of natural gas found in coal deposits.
The state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. also has CBM blocks.
Currently, the most promising region of shale deposits is around the eastern part of India, called the Damodar Valley Basin, where the first shale exploration is expected to begin.
(Report by Promit Mukherjee, edited by Elaine Hardcastle)
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