India's Hydrocarbon Outlook – 2022-2023

108 DGH: 3 DECADES OF UNLOCKING INDIA'S HYDROCARBON POTENTIAL 3.5 National Seismic Programme (NSP) 1.0: Journey so far and way forward India is endowed with twenty-six sedimentary basins having wide geological spread from Proterozoic to Tertiary. Present domestic oil and gas production comes mainly from the Tertiary basinswithsomecontributionfromtheMesozoics as well. However, National Oil Companies were chasing the older basins consistently and of late, the Proterozoic basins, gave encouraging results though commercial production is yet to commence. Out of 26 sedimentary basins (list given in the table below), 16 basins are located onland and 10 basins are offshore or extend into offshore. The total sedimentary basinal area is 3.36 Million sq.km . spread over onland, shallow water and deep-water areas. Out of total basinal area of 3.36 Million sq.km. , 1.63 million sq km is onland, 0.41 million sq km in shallow water (up to depth of 400m) and 1.32 million sq km in deep water, extending into the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). In 2019, Government categorized 26 sedimentary basins in 3 categories as per prospectivity and resource potential, based on data generated by exploration and production (E&P) companies over the decades. Out of this about 1.502 Million sq.km . i.e., 48% of the total sedimentary cover remained poorly explored with minimal geo-scientific data, especially for the older basins and for the play extensions for the producing basins. To launch future Exploration and Production (E&P) activities, holistic appraisal of these unappraised areas is considered to be an important task to validate and tap the prognosticated resource. Table 3.1: Indian Sedimentary Basins Category - I: Basins are commercially producing hydrocarbons 1 Krishna-Godavari (KG) 2 Mumbai Offshore 3 Assam Shelf 4 Rajasthan 5 Cauvery 6 Assam-Arakan Fold Belt (AAFB) 7 Cambay Category - II: Basins have discoveries, not yet commercially developed 8 Saurashtra 9 Kutch 10 Vindhyan 11 Mahanadi 12 Andaman Category - III: Basins have no discoveries yet, less explored 13 Kerala-Konkan (KK) 14 Bengal-Purnea 15 Ganga-Punjab 16 Pranhita-Godavari (PG) 17 Satpura-South Rewa-Damodar 18 Himalayan Foreland 19 Chhattisgarh 20 Narmada 21 Spiti-Zanskar 22 Deccan Syneclise 23 Cuddapah 24 Karewa 25 Bhima-Kaladgi 26 Bastar