FDP And DOC Monitoring

As per article – 10 of PSC (Production Sharing Contract) when a discovery is made, the operator has to announce the discovery followed by its different stages of development to the public.

A ‘Discovery’ means the finding, during Petroleum Operations, of actual presence of a Petroleum-bearing reservoir, which can be recovered at the surface in a flow measureable by petroleum industry testing methods.

The different stages of development of a discovery are given below

• Format-A : to be submitted by the contractor to Management Committee when a new Discovery has been made in the block and where the Potential Commercial Interest (PCI) of the Discovery is yet to be established
• Format-B :  to be submitted by a contractor to Management Committee after detailed testing of Discovery and, if the Discovery is found to be Potential Commercial Interest (PCI) and merits appraisal
• Format-C : to be submitted by the contractor to Management committee/Government after the appraisal is complete and the Discovery is declared as commercial and needs development for exploration of Oil and Gas
• Format-D : to be submitted by the contractor to Management committee/Government after Development plan is approved by Government/Management Committee

Declaration of Commerciality (DoC)

Once the discovery is made, the operator, further carry out tests to declare whether the discovery is of Potential Commercial Interest (PCI) and merits appraisal. Subsequent to appraisal the operator need to submit DoC to the Management Committee for review.

Field Development Plan (FDP)

The operator has to submit the Field development plan of DoC reviewed discovery/discoveries to the Management Committee (MC) for approval. The time frame for the submission of FDP are as under

• Oil Discovery – within 200 days of DoC review
• Gas Discovery – within 365 days of DoC review

Major functions of DoC and FDP Group

• Co-ordination with different technical groups in DGH for timely evaluation of Declaration of Commerciality (DoC) and Field Development Plan (FDP)

• Preparation of approval sheet of DoC/FDP for final recommendation to DG for approval

• Maintain/updation of Discoveries and its status of development

Discoveries under PSC regime-in a nutshell

With the advent of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) by the Government of India in 1999, the E & P activities were further intensified by award of new acreages to various national and international E & P companies on the basis of open bidding system. This has not only helped in induction of much awaited new technologies in exploration activities but also resulted in a spurt on number of new discoveries by exploring unexplored areas in the country.

So far, a total of 225 hydrocarbon discoveries (116 Oil and 109 Gas) have been made under the PSC regime in 63 blocks. Out of these 64 (40 Oil+ 24 Gas) discoveries are already put on production/on the way to production.