Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said here on Sunday that it was not a profitable proposition to monetise gas hydrate reserves found in the Krishna-Godavari basin unless commercially viable technology was developed to tap it.
Addressing a press conference, Mr. Pradhan said there was need to invest in technology to tap gas hydrates. However, it will add a new dimension to India’s economy if the country was able to start production of gas hydrates based on preliminary estimates of scientists.
The K-G basin will become the oil hub in future, but gas production there is a major challenge based on the prevalent practice of policy management. Hence, the Centre brought a new pricing and marketing mechanism. The ONGC had oil and gas fields in K-G basin since 2000 but there was no production because it was a challenging field and lacked price viability. The K-G basin was among the five most challenging oil fields in the world, he added.
Mr. Pradhan said the K-G basin was likely to attract fresh investments worth Rs. 1 lakh crore in the next five years, which will benefit downstream industry beside promote petrochemical complexes.Read More…