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Petroleum Minister M. Veerappa Moily on Sunday said that the Prime Minister-headed Cabinet Committee on Investment panel would take up 31 oil and gas blocks stuck for clearances in ‘two-weeks'.
On March 20, the CCI panel gave clearance for five oil and gas exploration blocks.
The nodal Ministry has listed nearly 40 blocks that are stuck at different stages of exploration because of not getting approval from the Defence Research and Development Organisation, Navy or Airforce.
According to Petroleum Secretary Vivek Rae, the Petroleum Ministry has arrived at mutual agreements with the Ministry of Defence and DRDO for these blocks.
'No-go areas'
In addition, the last CCI panel meeting has also marked three blocks as ‘no-go’ areas, where exploration activities cannot be done.
Answering a question on whether the Government would compensate companies for the expenses made in these blocks, Rae said: “We will examine and we will find some way to compensate it. Two of them are owned by ONGC and one is from the private sector.”
Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Panabaaka Lakshmi informed the Lok Sabha on March 22 that the Ministry of Defence had placed restrictions on exploration and development activities in 39 ofshore areas. These are in Krishna-Godavari and Mahanadi basins.
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