India's Hydrocarbon Outlook – 2022-2023

148 DGH: 3 DECADES OF UNLOCKING INDIA'S HYDROCARBON POTENTIAL 6.2 Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licencing Policy (HELP) The Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP) replacing the erstwhile NELP policy and all CBM Policies was approved and notified in March 2016. Under the HELP, Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP) along with the National Data Repository (NDR) was launched in June 2017 as the key drivers for the acceleration of Exploration and Production activities in India. The HELP was a paradigm shift from Cost Recovery to Revenue Sharing Mechanism and a giant step towards improving the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ in the Indian Exploration and Production (E&P) sector. It comes with attractive and liberal terms like reduced royalty rates, no oil cess, marketing and pricing freedom, round the year bidding, freedom to investors for carving out blocks of their interest, a single license to cover both conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon resources, exploration permission during the entire contract period, and an easy, transparent and swift bidding and awarding process. In continuation to its determination for reduction in import dependency of oil and gas and accelerating E&P activities, Government notified the further policy reforms in upstream sector on 28th February, 2019 to increase exploration activities, attract domestic and foreign investment in unexplored/unallocated areas of sedimentary basins and promote ease of doing business by streamlining and expediting the approval processes. It was a paradigm shift in the core goal of the Government, moving from revenue maximization to production maximization, with focus on exploration. 6.2.1 Government has taken following Policy Initiatives pertaining to HELP in recent past a. Early Monetization Policy : The Government notified 'Guidelines for Early Monetization of hydrocarbon discoveries under Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and Revenue Sharing Contracts (RSCs). These guidelines lay out the procedure for commencing commercial production from a Discovery during the Exploration phase of the Contract period under the PSCs & RSCs. This would ensure rapid monetisation of Discoveries. b. Simplification and Standardisation of RSC processes for OALP blocks : To promote Government of India’s aimof facilitating Ease of Doing Business and improve efficiency, various RSC processes were extensively reviewed and categorised, so as to enable standardised compliances of different RSC processes. Guidelines in this regard have been issued by the Government for PSC blocks and are under process to be issued for OALP blocks. c. Rationalisation of No-Go area for carrying out exploration activities : Recently, about 99% of the erstwhile ‘No-Go’ areas in EEZ have been released for E&P activities. Moreover, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between DGH and ISRO for carrying out seismic activities in Andaman Nicobar Basin. d. Amendment in SRF guidelines: The Government relaxed the requirements of contribution towards Site Restoration Fund. Instead of contribution in the form of cash, operator may furnish Bank Guarantee up to certain limit of the obligations. e. Simplification of bid documents for future OALP Rounds : Simplification of model bid documents is under progress for future OALP bid rounds. The purpose is to bring in more ease of doing business in E&P sector and make bid documents globally competitive. HELP is in line with GOI's policy of Minimum government, Maximum governance and Ease of doing business has received industry accolades for its target to minimize GOI's discretion in decision making, reduce administrative delays and stimulate development and growth in the E&P sector in India.