Year End Review - Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas

Why in news?

Year-end Review of Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has been released.

What were the events in exploration & production?

• HELP-The new Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP) for award of Hydrocarbon Acreages in the Upstream Sector of India was notified in 2016.
• Open Acreage Licensing Policy (“OALP”) is one of the key features of HELP which has added in 2017. Click here to know more about this policy
• Discovered Small Field Policy (DSF) -The Union Cabinet approved 129 marginal fields for exploration under Discovered Small Fields Policy. 
• Survey of un-appraised areas of Sedimentary Basins of India - Under this Government prepared a Project to conduct 2D seismic surveys of all sedimentary basins of India.
• It aimsto generate seismic data for initiating Exploration and Production (E&P) activities.
• National Data Repository (NDR) -NDR has been set up at Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) to make the entire E&P data available for commercial exploration, research and development and academic purposes. 

What were the notable events in Natural Gas sector?

• Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga - This is the national gas grid project which aims to provide piped natural gas (PNG) connection in the eastern part of the country by developing additional 15,000 km of gas pipeline network.  .
• In domestic segment, PNG is used as substitute of LPG and other more polluting fuels like coal, wood etc.
• In industrial and commercial installations, PNG replaces fuels like Furnace Oil (FO), Propane, Commercial LPG, Coal, Wood, Pet-Coke etc.
• At present, the natural gas grid in the country predominantly connects the western, northern and south-eastern gas markets with major gas sources.
• This scheme primarily aims to provide the clean energy in the Eastern part of the country.

• City Gas Distribution Network (CGD) - It aims in distribution of natural gas to domestic, industrial and commercial customers through pipes as Piped Natural Gas (PNG) and in compressed form to the automotive segment as Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
• Union Government has envisaged to expand the coverage of CGD networks across the country in synchronisation with the Gas availability and pipeline connectivity.
• Pilot based CGD projects have been launched in Delhi and the implementation of CGD projects in various cities is being taken up in a phased manner,
• Promotion of CNG/LNG in Transportation Sector - The Government is promoting the usages of environment friendly transportation fuel CNG
• Government has issued guidelines for making available domestic gas to the CGD entities for meeting the entire requirement of CNG for transport segments.

What are the measures taken on energy accessibility?

• Augmentation of refinery sector -Out of the 23 refineries operation in the country, 18 are in public sector, 3 are in private sector and two as a joint venture with a total refining capacity of 247.566 Million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA).
• By this India is self-sufficient in the refining capacity for its domestic consumption and also exports a sufficient quantity of petroleum products.
• Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) - This scheme has been launched with an aim to provide LPG connections to 5 crore women belonging to the Below Poverty Line(BPL) families.
• As on December 2017 more than 3.2 crore new LPG connections have been given to them.
• Out of this, 30.5% and 13.3% connections have been issued to SC and ST categories respectively.

• PAHAL - It is a direct benefit transfer scheme under which a customer needs to link its Aadhaar with his LPG and bank accounts.
• This scheme has helped in identifying ‘ghost’ accounts, multiple accounts and inactive accounts and made benefits transfer transparent.
• Direct Benefit Transfer in PDS Kerosene (DBTK) - It aims to bring reforms in public distribution system, for better subsidy management.
• DBTK has been implemented in all districts of Jharkhand and 4 districts of Chhattisgarh, Other States have been requested to join the Scheme.

What were the measures taken on clean energy?

• Kerosene Free states - It aim to by brining all households under LPG.
• So far, UTs of Delhi, Chandigarh, Daman & Diu, Dadar and Nagar Haveli & Pondicherry and the States of Haryana, Andhra Pradesh & Punjab have become `Kerosene Free’.
• Introduction of BS fuel norms -The Government has implemented supply of BS-IV auto fuels in the entire country to address vehicular pollution.
• Government has also decided to leapfrog from BS-IV to BS-VI directly and a notification has been issued for implementation of BS-VI by 2020 in the entire country. Click here to know more about BS fuel norms.
• Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme -In order to improve the availability of ethanol, the Government revised the ex-mill price of ethanol at Rs. 40.85/per litre.
• This will be beneficial to farmers in addressing stubble burning issues and also provides cleaner fuel.
• Oil PSUs are also establishing twelve 2G Ethanol plants in 11 States of the country.
• Foundation stone of the first Biofuel refinery set up by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited in Bathinda, Punjab, has been laid.
• Biodiesel Programme -The Governmenthas also paved the way for direct sale of Biodiesel (B-100) for blending with High Speed Diesel to all consumers.

Source: PIB