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Unconventional Petroleum Resources 139

• Future Prospects occurrences. Under NGHP-01, 39 holes
were drilled to explore the presence of
1. In 2018 Govt. has allowed E&P operators gas hydrate at 21 sites in Krishna-Godavari
in India to explore and develop all (KG), Mahanadi, Andaman, and Kerala-
unconventional hydrocarbons (CBM, Konkan Basin. Except for Kerala-Konkan, the
shale oil and gas, tight gas) under existing presence of gas hydrate was established in all
production sharing contracts, CBM blocks, three basins, but such gas was proved to be
and nominated licenses. This allows the non-exploitable with existing technologies.
exploration and development of shale gas/
oil in existing PML areas. 2. NGHP Expedition 02 (2015):

2. The Barren Measure formation underlying This phase focused on delineating gas
the Raniganj formation in Raniganj hydrate deposits in the Krishna-Godavari
Coalfields (West Bengal & Jharkhand) is rich Basin and assessing their potential for future
in organic content consisting dominantly production. Advanced drilling techniques
of shale interbedded with silt which is and sophisticated logging tools were used to
considered to have good potential for gather detailed data on the hydrate-bearing
Shale gas. Preliminary studies carried out sediments.42 holes were drilled at 25 sites in
by existing CBM operators i.e. M/s GEECL & KG and Mahanadi Basin. Sand reservoirs with
M/s EOGEPL incorporating all the available gas hydrate were located at two places in KG
datasets have shown presence of prolific Basin and the considered to be prospective
thickness of Barren Measure shale across for future production testing.
the basin.
3. NGHP Expedition 03 (Ongoing):
7.3.3 Gas Hydrates
The current phase aims at testing
• Governing Policies: production technologies and developing
pilot projects for gas hydrate extraction.
The National Gas Hydrate Program (NGHP) It involves the deployment of innovative
is an initiative by the Government of India drilling and production technologies to
aimed at exploring and exploiting gas evaluate the feasibility of commercial gas
hydrates as a potential source of energy with hydrate production.
an objective to conduct comprehensive
surveys to assess the potential of gas • Future Prospects
hydrate resources in Indian offshore areas,
particularly in the Krishna-Godavari (KG), Given India's growing energy demands and
Mahanadi, and Andaman basins. the need for energy security, the NGHP plays a
crucial role in identifying and developing these
• NGHP Expeditions unconventional hydrocarbon resources. Last
meeting of the NGHP committee was held in
1. NGHP Expedition 01 (2006): 2019. Committee suggested for acquiring of

The first expedition was primarily an More data and drilling of more wells in Phase-2.
exploratory mission to identify gas hydrate Phase-3 i.e. Production phase will be carried out
later after acquisition of more data.