India’s Hydrocarbon Outlook 2024 193 A Report on Exploration & Production Activities 8.2.1 Year 2019 September 2021: Guidelines specific to hydrocarbon sector for undertaking seismic surveys and exploratory drilling in forest areas The MoEF&CC in its OM dated 30.09.2019 clarified that for the purpose of seismic survey, the maximum permissible number of shot holes may be fixed as 80 per sq kmof maximum size of 6.5 inch each so that reliable data can be collected. The permission for such activity can be granted at State level. Further, Ministry also clarified that the State Govt shall not insist on approval under section 2(iii) of FCA, 1980 at the time grant of PEL. However, the user agencies shall take all statutory permission before executing of lease/breaking of land. 8.2.2 Year 2022 November 2022: Separate & Distinct category for “Mining of Mineral Oil” DGH has been pursuing for creation of distinct and separate category for the oil and gas sector since the nature of operations of Oil and Gas Exploration and Production and Conventional Mining are completely different. MoEF&CC has acceded to DGH’s request by creating a separate head as “Mining of Mineral Oil” to cater to the hydrocarbon projects on PARIVESH web portal without any procedural changes. MoEFCC had also done suitable changes as per petroleum sector in forest clearance form. This is intended to ease out the operators in applying for forest clearance in areas of fresh diversion considering the content of the form is quite compatible with the terms used in E&P O&G sector. June 2022 Forest (Conservation) Rules 2022 The MoEF&CC notified the FC Rules 2022 on 28th June, 2022. It is conferred by Section 4 of the FCA, 1980 and in supersession of the FC Rules, 2003 including following requests in favor of HC sector: (i) Non- requirement of FC approval for grant of PML/PEL (ii) Provision of accredited Compensatory Afforestation (ACA) to create land bank (iii) Delegation of power upto 5 ha for FC grant to IRO However, these rules were later superseded by the FC rules of 2023. 8.2.3 Year 2023 June 2023: Issuance of new FC Rules 2023 The MoEF&CC notified the FC Rules 2023 on 29th November, 2023. It is conferred by Section 4 of the FCA, 1980 and and in supersession of the Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2022. The provisions of FC Rules, 2023 include the following: Constitution of Committees: The Rules have advocated the constitution of advisory committee, a regional empowered committee at each of the integrated regional offices and a project screening committee at State/ Union Territory (UT) government-level. Regional Empowered Committees: All linear proposals involving forest land of more than five hectares, all proposals for use of forest land having canopy density upto 0.7 for the purpose of survey irrespective of their extent and all other proposals involving the use of more than five hectares and up to forty hectares forest land, shall be referred, after examination of its completeness, by the Regional Office to the Regional Empowered Committee. Project Screening Committee: As per the new FC Rules 20203, the State Government and Union territory Administration may, by an order, constitute a Project Screening Committee to examine the completeness of the proposal submitted. The committee is supposed to meet at least twice every month and will advise the state governments on projects in a time bound manner. The PSC brings a lot of time saving into the mundane processes of incomplete documents and to and fro query processing. This shall certainly reduce the delays.
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