A total of 11 cases have been filed between 2011 and 2015 by contractors/companies that inked production sharing contracts with the Government of India to explore oil and gas.

This was conveyed to the Lok Sabha by Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge) Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday.

The Minister said the Government had inked 310 production sharing contracts in the Pre-New Exploration Licensing Policy regime and 22 cases have been initiated with regard to these contracts in the last 15 years.

Five cases were between 2001 and 2005, six in the 2006-2010 period and 11 cases between 2011 and 2015.

The contractors and companies that have initiated arbitration include the likes of Cairn India, Niko Resources, Reliance Industries and others.

Pradhan also said a total of 482 exploratory wells have been drilled by ONGC and Oil India between 2012-13 and 2014-15, of which 178 proved to be hydrocarbon bearing.

“The performance of ONGC and Oil India is being monitored by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons on a half yearly basis and the Ministry for Petroleum and Natural Gas on a quarterly basis. Of the 482 wells drilled, 259 were found to be dry and 45 are at various stages of testing,” said Pradhan.

He added that the Ministry has devised parameters to monitor drilling efficiency through measurement of rig performance of the national oil companies.

“It has been decided that a bimonthly report on the parameters of cycle speed and drilling cost in US dollars per metre will be furnished separately for exploratory and development drilling,” said the Minister.

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