India has 26 sedimentary basins covering an area of 3.36 Million SqKm spread over onland, shallow water and deep water. As a base to launch future Exploration and Production (E&P) activities in the country, appraisal of all un-appraised areas by acquiring Geo-scientific data with state-of-the-art technology has been embarked on. The generated data is instrumental in identifying the prospective areas, carving out the blocks in Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) etc.
As a step towards Prime Minister’s vision of reducing India’s energy imports, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has launched the Central Sector Scheme christened as ‘National Seismic Program’ (NSP) and approved by Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs for appraisal of onland part of Indian sedimentary basins where no/scanty data is available. Appraisal of un-appraised offshore areas up to EEZ and drilling of parametric wells are also being taken up separately.
The NSP project commenced in September 2016 and total ~ 46,960 LKM 2D seismic data acquisition, processing and interpretation (API) thereof have been completed covering Category-I, II and III basins.
Details of areas taken up under NSP campaign are :
| 2D Seismic Data Acquisition, Processing and Interpretation | |
|---|---|
| Category-I | |
| Assam Shelf & Assam Arakan | 5246 LKM |
| Cambay | 1469 LKM |
| Krishna-Godavari | 981 LKM |
| Rajasthan | 2752 LKM |
| Category-II | |
| Andaman | 264 LKM |
| Kutch | 1809 LKM |
| Mahanadi | 2481 LKM |
| Saurashtra | 2306 LKM |
| Vindhyan | 5373 LKM |
| Category-III | |
| Himalayan Foreland | 1564 LKM |
| Ganga-Punjab | 3858 LKM |
| Bengal | 911 LKM |
| Satpura-South Rewa- Damodar | 1124 LKM |
| Narmada | 1618 LKM |
| Deccan Synclise | 10436 LKM |
| Bhima | 612 LKM |
| Kaladgi | 257 LKM |
| Cudappah | 1387 LKM |
| Pranhita-Godavari | 735 LKM |
| Chhattisgarh | 1778 LKM |
The data generated under NSP campaign using long spreads (12 to 18 Km) and state-of-the-art technology has enabled in ascertaining presence of sub-trappean Mesozoic sediments in some of the areas. The NSP data has provided significant leads towards the extension of existing producing basins as the information about the tectonics framework has improved.
So far, 11 blocks have been awarded from areas appraised under NSP (7 in Rajasthan basin, 2 in Mahanadi basin and 2 in Assam Shelf).
The interested Exploration and Production stakeholders can view geo-scientific data from anywhere in the world and firm up an opinion regarding prospectivity of the blocks prior to bidding for the block. Further details of NSP data can be accessed through the National Data Repository website https://www.ndrdgh.gov.in/NDR/.
