Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has promised an open-door policy to resolve any issue faced by the industry as he sought foreign and private investments to boost domestic oil and gas production.
At an investor meet called to promote India’s latest offering of discovered fields for bidding, Puri said India, besides offering the world’s fastest-growing energy markets, also offers a rule-based regime.
“The government stands ready to partner with you both in the identification of what remedial steps we need to take in the ecosystem and what need to do to overcome hurdles,” he said.
The Indian economy, he said, is poised to take off and the same is going to contribute to the growth of energy demand. And to meet that, domestic exploration and production has to be increased.
Puri said he wants foreign and private firms to get involved in the Indian oil and gas exploration and production.
“If anyone, anywhere in the world is thinking of good investment in energy, India is a good place to begin,” he said.
Addressing representatives of private and foreign companies who joined the meet online, he said, “I look forward to many of our friends who are on the screen… to intensify their interest here.”
“My doors are open… tell me what is it we have to do to make sure that you are able to take business decisions,” he said.
As many as 32 oil and gas blocks with 75 discoveries have been offered in the Discovered Small Field (DSF) round-III. These small and marginal fields were discovered by state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) but they were not economically viable to be developed due to the fiscal regime and their small size.
