India completed the data collection for the exhaustive survey of the Andaman offshore area last week and is reportedly moving closer to beginning exploration activities in the region after the government opened up the once ‘no-go’ areas for exploration.
The survey of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), backed by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), has acquired over 22,000 line kilometres (LKM) of two-dimensional (2D) data in the region, according to a report in Moneycontrol.
The Indian government has taken several measures to support exploration in the Andamans, such as opening up acreages and encouraging foreign players to invest in the area, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, told Moneycontrol on the sidelines of an event recently.
“We had to make changes. Most of our sedimentary basins were not open for exploration because somewhere Coast Guard had a problem, somewhere DRDO had a problem. We have opened up that space now,” Puri said.
The Indian government also plans to fund the drilling of a few exploratory wells in the region.
Separately, two state run-companies, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL), have completed surveys and initiated exploratory activities for their blocks in the region.
Sushma Rawat, Director (Exploration), ONGC, told Moneycontrol that the 2D data collection for the DGH-backed survey of the EEZ was completed last week and the data will be processed soon.
“This is the first time it is being called island exploration; there have been phases of it over the years. Andaman is seeing a renewal of exploration activities, which is good, Rawat said.
Exploring Andaman basin’s offshore opportunities
According to the DGH, Andamans is a ‘Category II’ basin, which implies that the basin has sub-commercial discovery in place. The basin has an area of 225,918 square kilometres with 18,074 sq km shallow water area and 207,844 sq km deepwater area.
“The Andaman basin has a total hydrocarbon in place of 72 MMTOE (metric million tonnes of oil equivalent), out of which 2 MMTOE have been discovered and this is now entirely sub-commercial in place. The remaining 70 MMTOE, nearly 97 percent of the total in place is the potential to be explored and discovered,” DGH said in its India Hydrocarbon Outlook 2022-23.
In terms of awarded acreage that is now active in the Andamans basin, 23,245 sq km are under the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP).
DGH said in the report that in the upcoming Offshore Mega Open Acreage Licensing (OALP) Round IX, there is an opportunity for 53,099 sq km prospective areas in back-arc regions that are carved into four blocks, all located in ultra-deepwater.
Rawat said that ONGC is keen to look at more blocks in the Andamans when they come up for bidding.
“We are waiting for the ninth round to come up. DGH has earmarked the offshore blocks. As of now, ONGC has two blocks in the Andamans offshore deepwater from the OALP sixth round,” she said.
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