NSG, someone said you are familiar with India's energy sector. Question for you: India stated that there's a lot of unexplored potential in India. And assuming their have the drilling rigs and technology, why have much of India been unexplored and they need foreign oil majors to come and explore???
Answer might be in the question itself. Why has the USA not yet drilled all its OIL ? Alsaska has huge reserves.
By the way exploring and drilling is in indias Heritage itself. We have learned from the british a lot.
Soon after Edwin Drake drilled the world's first oil well in 1859 at Titusville, Pennsylvania, USA, history chronicles another exploratory effort in search of the black liquid gold, across continents.
In the 1860s, sub surface oil exploration activities started in the dense jungles of Assam in north-east India and in March 1867, oil was struck in the well drilled near Makum, Assam. This was the first successful mechanically drilled well in Asia.The first commercial discovery of crude oil in the country was, however, made in 1889 at Digboi,Assam when a group of gallant oilmen erected a 20 meter high thatch covered wooden structure at the head of the Brahmaputra valley.This was the begining of oil exploration in asia.
Digboi oilfields are over 100 years old and still producing. It was sole supplier of oil to the nation till independence. Asia's first refinery was set up at Digboi in Assam in 1901.
Assam Oil Company Ltd. (AOC) was one of the earliest enterprises in the world engaged in exploration and production of oil. Oil was discovered in Assam by Assam Railway & Trading Company (Originally formed with the object of drilling for oil, later on Assam Oil Company was created to carry out exploration work in Assam and adjoining areas)
After Independence the national oil companies Oil and Natural gas Corp, Oil india Ltd, Indian oil corp were created with the experience of the heritage companies. Towards the end of the centuries Private companies started exploration in KG basin , Bombay high etc.
While ONGC and OIL focused on drilling , IOCL was doing marketing.
So exploration by indian companies never ended.
Oil India ltd has over 1 lakh sq km of PEL/ML areas for its exploration and production activities, most of it in the Indian North East, which accounts for its entire crude oil production and majority of gas production. Rajasthan is the other producing area of OIL, contributing 10 per cent of its total gas production.Additionally, OIL’s exploration activities are spread over onshore areas of Ganga Valley and Mahanadi. OIL also has participating interest in NELP exploration blocks in Mahanadi Offshore, Mumbai Deepwater, Krishna Godavari Deepwater, etc. as well as various overseas projects in Libya, Gabon, Iran, Nigeria and Sudan.
ONGC besides its domestic exploration and drilling is doing explorartion and drilling in Myanmar,Russia, Turkmenistan, Vietnam , Iran, Iraq, Syria, Congo Brazzaville, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, Nigeria Sao Tome & Principe,sudan, Brazil, colombia, cuba, venezuela, trinadad & tobago etc.
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