Modified policy to revive ageing oilfields expected to be out in 2025
The government may notify the modified version of the policy on enhanced recovery (ER) and improved recovery (IR) for oil and gas in 2025, officials said. Set to replace the existing policy from 2018, the new policy is expected to provide better financial incentives for projects to be commercially viable. While an expert committee had provided its recommendations on the updated policy, it could not be adopted earlier. “Other issues were being studied. This is expected to be taken up for consideration (to be notified) in the early part of next year,” an official said.In October 2018, the government issued a policy framework to promote ER and IR methods for oil and gas and provide fiscal incentives for operators to adopt them alongside unconventional hydrocarbon production methods. The policy included a provision for review after five years, which began in June 2023 with the constitution of an expert committee by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. While the committee completed its task within two months and submitted the draft Modified ER Policy, 2023, with its recommendations, it has not yet been adopted. According to the latest government estimates from 2018, the recovery level is 60 per cent for oil fields and 80 per cent for gas fields in India. Enhanced extraction is often required to increase oil production beyond what is achieved by naturally flowing vertical wells. The extraction of oil and gas resources is a complicated, strenuous process, and ER techniques involve changing the chemical and physical properties of the formation fluids and rocks to recover the remaining crude oil. This could involve infill drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and drilling horizontal and multilateral wells.