Oil exploration underway in Manipur
Source: The Sangai Express / ANI
Imphal, May 16 2017:
Oil India Limited, has
commenced a survey to
check for the presence of
hydrocarbons in Manipur.
The project manager of
the Manipur State Level
Convention on Oil Exploration
team, Sumit Mahajan,
told ANI that they had
started conducting the survey
two months back, from
district Jribam.
The survey
has reached the Khaidem
Village in Imphal West.
"This project, if triumphant,
will be useful and
bring in quite a lot of opportunities
for the development
of both the state and
nation as a whole.
Assam
has reaped the benefits from
the availability of slew of
hydrocarbons and we are
hopeful about the same for
Manipur.
If the results are
positive, there will be surge
in the employment sector
paving way for Manipur's
economic prosperity," said
Mahajan.
The expedition survey
will take about two more
years and is due to get
wrapped up by April 2019.
Post that, the centre and the
Directorate General of Hydrocarbons
(DGH) will
reflect upon next steps.
The Government of India
through Ministry of Petroleum
and Natural Gas had
granted license to Jubiliant
Oil and Gas Private Limited
(JOGPL), a Netherlands
based oil exploration company,
for exploring and
drilling two oil blocks in
Manipur located in the
Jiribam (Imphal East),
Tamenglong and Churachandpur
districts of Manipur,
without the acknowledgement
and consent of
locals.
The contracts were
awarded under the eighth
round of New Exploration
Licensing Policy (NELP) of
the Government of India.
Earlier, as well, without
any intimation of the locals,
the government had undertaken
series of promotions
globally in 2003 and 2009
to promote the oil blocks of
'the jeweled ( land', along with others through road-shows in major cities of the
world like London, Houston, Calgary and Perth etc, inviting bids
to oil companies.
The production sharing contract for the Manipur
Oil Block 1 (AA-ONN-2009/1) was signed on 30th June, 2010
and the Petroleum Exploration License was granted by the
Manipur Government on 23rd September, 2010.The Contract for
Manipur block II (AA-ONN-2009/2) was signed on 19th July
2010 and the license was granted by the Manipur Government on
20th September, 2010.
The deeds for the exploration licenses were signed on 15th
November, 2010, all without the knowledge of the people of
Manipur.
The total area granted for oil exploration is 3850 Square
Kilometres and it is estimated that Manipur has nearly 5000
billion cubic feet of oil.
The Jubiliant Energy is envisaged to drill oil from 30 oil
wells, identified by the Alpha Geo Company based in
Hyderabad, which has been conducting seismic studies for
Jubiliant Energy.
The latest Annual report of Jubilant Energy indicates that
the two Manipur Blocks have prospective oil resources ranging
from 380 billion cubic feet to 1.43 trillion cubic feet, with
Jubilant Energy holding 100 percent participating interest.