Panel for Coordination among Ministries

• 22 Jun 2019

• The Union government has set up a panel for better coordination among the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), the Ministry of Environment and Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), and the state governments.
• The panel will assist in speeding up hydrocarbon exploration-related clearances.
• It will help in resolving the following issues:
  
  • There are differences among MoPNG and MoEF on whether “exploration” should be treated as “mining”.
  • Many onshore and offshore blocks under the Discovered Small Fields (DSF) and Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OLAP) rounds also stuck with the MoEFCC.
  • Another issue is the companies involved in exploration state that exploration activities be considered as a temporary “vegetation change” which is objected by MoEF.
• The panel has Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha as chairman, and secretaries of home, petroleum and environment will be members.
• It will also have a representative from the NITI Aayog and chief secretaries of petroleum-producing states like Assam, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.

Discovered Small Field Policy

• Union government launched the Discovered Small Field policy in 2015 with a prime objective to bring Discovered Small Fields to production at the earliest so as to increase the domestic production.
• It provides for single uniform license for producing all kinds of hydrocarbon, no cess on the oil production, moderate royalty structure, customs duty exemptions and complete marketing and pricing freedom for the sale of produced crude oil and natural gas.

Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OLAP)

• The OLAP was declared by the union government in June, 2017.
• Under it, the potential investors choose the exact areas they are interested in, convey their interest to the government, which then places just those blocks up for bidding.