Oil Exploration Projects Speedy Clearance

Contractors/Operators of Oil & Gas blocks have to obtain statutory clearances and approvals from various State and Central Government authorities to start Exploration & Production activities. These clearances and approvals include Petroleum Exploration License (PEL), Petroleum Mining Lease (PML), environment related clearances like Environment Clearance, Forest Clearance, Wildlife clearance etc., Clearances from Ministry of Defence, Clearance from Department of Space, Consent to Establish (CTE), Consent to Operate (CTO) and many other clearances. Delay in obtaining such clearances and approvals affects the overall timelines and progress of the Exploration & Production projects.

The Government has been making continuous efforts to ensure timely clearances and approvals. Various efforts made by the Government in this regard are:

i. The Empowered Coordination Committee (ECC) has been constituted under the Cabinet Secretary for streamlining and speeding up clearances and approvals.

ii. Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MOP&NG) vide OM dated 28.02.2020 conveyed approval of Self Certification of Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) processes. Twenty two processes were identified where documents from the Contractors shall be accepted on Self-Certification basis and no approval is required.

iii. Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has launched PARIVESH, a web based, role based workflow application which has been developed for online submission and monitoring of the proposals submitted by the proponents for seeking Environment, Forest, Wildlife and CRZ Clearances from Central, State and district level authorities.

iv. Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) in consultation with Ministry of Defence/ Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has developed and implemented, e-submission of all applications for MOD related vessel clearance and MHA related expat clearance for Exploration & Production operations.

v. Regular meetings are being held in presence of officials from MOP&NG, DGH, State Government to discuss pending issues related to grant of licenses or clearances pertaining to respective States.

vi. URJA PRAGATI (Upstream Response by Joint Action for proactive Governance and Timely Implementation) web-based interactive portal has been launched recently by DGH to prioritize and flag the long pending issues concerning the upstream hydrocarbon sector involving various stakeholders such as Operators, Central Ministries and State Governments.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameswar Teli in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on 26 July, 2021.