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The Union Cabinet has approved the policy framework to encourage measures for increasing oil and gas production from ageing fields.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference after the Cabinet meeting, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan, said, “Oil and natural gas production worth ₹50 lakh crore is expected to be unlocked from this policy. The EOR Policy offers a 50 per cent discount on cess charged for crude oil production and 75 per cent discount on royalty charged for gas production after implementing EOR projects on existing assets.”
An official statement said, “An increase by 5 per cent in recovery rate of original in-place volume in oil production is envisaged, producing 120 million tonne additional oil in the next 20 years. In case of gas, an increase of 3 per cent recovery rate on original in- place volume is envisaged, leading to additional production of 52 BCM of gas in the next 20 years.”
The policy, having a sunset clause, will be effective for 10 years from the date of its notification. However, the fiscal incentives will be available for a period of 120 months from the date of commencement of production in enhanced recovery projects, the statement added.
Railway electrification
In another decision, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the proposal for electrification of balance un-electrified broad gauge routes of Indian Railways comprising 108 sections covering 13,675 route km (16,540 track km) at a cost of ₹12,134.50 crore. This electrification is likely to be completed by 2021-2022.
“The proposed electrification, which is mainly for missing links and last mile connectivity, will increase the operational efficiency, enhance the line capacity and improve the average speed of trains,” an official statement said.
The CCEA also approved the continuation of the Capacity Development Scheme to 2019-2020 with an outlay of ₹2,250 crore. This is an ongoing central sector scheme of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The overall objective of the scheme is to augment infrastructural, technical as well as manpower resources for making available credible and timely official statistics for policy makers and public at large.
The Cabinet also approved a Memorandum of Understanding on collaborative research on distributed ledger and blockchain technology. This is in the context of development of digital economy by Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) under the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism.
Transfer of RCF land
The Cabinet also approved the transfer of land of Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers (RCF) to Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Brunei Darussalam on Cooperation in the operation of Telemetry Tracking and Telecommand station for satellite and launch vehicles, and for cooperation in the field of Space Research, Science and Applications also got the Cabinet’s nod.
The Cabinet was also apprised of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and South Africa on cooperation in the exploration and uses of outer space for peaceful purposes.
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