- Directorate General of Hydrocarbons
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Directorate General Of Hydrocarbons (DGH) 
Type State-Owned Regulatory Body Industry Oil and Gas Founded 8 April 1993 Headquarters Noida, India Key people SK Srivastava
(Director General)The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) was established under the administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas of India by Indian Government Resolution 1993. The organization was set up to promote sound management of Indian petroleum and natural gas resources; balance environmental needs; oversee safety, technological and economic aspects of the petroleum industry; and review the exploration programmes of companies and advise the government on the adequacy of these programmes. DGH is also mandated to advise on the development plans of commercial discoveries; audit petroleum reservoirs; regulate preservation, up-keep and storage of data; and advise the government on compliance with safety and pollution standards in oilfield operations. Other responsibilities include the implementation of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), overseeing production sharing contracts for discovered fields and exploration blocks, promoting investment in the E&P sector and monitoring E&P activities, including reviewing the reservoir performance of producing fields.
Contents
Vision and Objectives
The vision of this organization is to be an upstream advisory & technical regulatory body of international repute, creating value for society through proliferation & dissemintion of E&P knowledge optimal hydrocarbon resources management & environment friendly practices.
The objective of the organization is to promote exploration and sound management of the petroleum & natural gas resources as also non-conventional hydrocarbon energy resources having balanced regard for the environment, safety, technological and economic aspects.
Creation of Directorate General of Hydrocarbons
In the independent India the exploration, exploitation and production of Petroleum and Natural Gas were basically under the control of Oil & Natural Gas Corporation(ONGC) and Oil India Limited(OIL), this continued from 1950 to 1980. In 1974, the greatest discovery, Bombay High was made. In 1984-86, there were a number of occasions when questions were raised in the Indian Parliament , namely, whether Bombay High was being flogged in an attempt to over produce oil. The Government was naturally concerned because a good oil-producing field should not be misused. So, they appointed a Committee called the Dasgupta Committee to go into the entire question of Bombay High reservoir management and on whether the reservoir was being managed well. In fact, the Dasgupta Committee, after going into the entire thing, stressed the need to have an appropriate agency to regulate the upstream oil activities. They said that reservoirs of this nature should be managed well. So, they said to have an independent agency to look into the management of reservoirs. Then, the Dasgupta Committee was followed by the Kaul Committee which went into the organizational structure of ONGC. They also said that an independent regulatory body called the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons be established in order to take care of upstream oil activity of the country.
In 1991, Government of India started with the liberalisation move and in the next two to three years, a number of joint ventures and private companies were also permitted to enter oil and gas exploration in the country. When the private and joint sector companies also entered into the scene, the Government of India thought it necessary to establish an independent agency to effectively supervise the activities of these companies and also offer technical advice to the Government on how to explore and optimally exploit the hydrocarbons resources. These were the circumstances under which the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons was established in 1993.”
Activities of Directorate General of Hydrocarbons
- Review & Monitoring of Petroleum Exploration Licenses (PELs) and Petroleum Mining Leases (MLs)
Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) review the exploration programmes of companies operating under Petroleum Exploration Licenses granted under the oilfields (Regulation and Development) Act, 1948 and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules, 1959 with a view to advising Government on the adequacy of these programmes. Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) also advises the Government of India for granting the Mining Leases to the different operators after reviewing the prospects of the concerned field or block under consideration. Presently this PEL/ML department at DGH is headed by Mr MC Srivastava.
- Upgradation of Information about Exploration Blocks through Geoscientific Surveys
DGH studies various sedimentary basins of the country geologically for their prospectivity and carves out the acreages in the form of exploration blocks for offering under various NELP & CBM rounds for global bidding by various E&P companies. For this, DGH carries out speculative geophysical/geochemical surveys. The data acquired through these surveys is studied by DGH scientists & engineers and based on the interpretations, data dockets and data packages are prepared. These data are purchased and referred by various E&P companies for studying the prospectivity of various blocks before they make up their mind for bidding of such blocks. Such knowledge building activities are carried out in various basins on regular basis. This work is done by the department of Geology and Geophysics in coordination with the NELP Department. The department of Geology and Geophysics is headed by Mr KS Shakhtawat.
- New Exploration & Licensing Policy
New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) was formulated by the Government of India, during 1997-98 to provide a level playing field to both Public and Private sector companies in exploration and production of hydrocarbons with Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) as a nodal agency for its implementation. Government of India’s commitment to the liberalization process is reflected in NELP, which has been conceptualized keeping in mind the immediate need for increasing domestic production. To attract more investment in oil exploration and production, NELP has steered steadily towards a healthy spirit of competition between National Oil Companies and private companies. This has been a landmark event in the growth of the upstream oil sector in India. The foreign and Indian private companies are invited to supplement the efforts of National Oil Companies in the discovery of hydrocarbons. The development of E&P sector has been significantly boosted through this policy of Government of India, which brought major liberalization in the sector and opened up E&P for private and foreign investment, where 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is allowed. Under NELP, which became effective in February 1999, acreages are offered to the participating companies through the process of open competitive bidding. The terms and conditions of this open and transparent policy rank amongst the most attractive in the world. The first round of offer of blocks was in the year 1999 and second to eighth rounds were in the years 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010 respectively. The government of India has so far completed eight rounds of offer of acreages under NELP where in 326 exploration blocks have been offered and 234 blocks have been awarded. In the eight rounds of NELP, investment is of the order of US $ 14 Billion. The above mentioned activities are conducted by the NELP Group and the department is currently headed by Mr T P Rao.
Major Programmes and Projects of DGH
- National Data Repository
As per the petroleum and natural gas amendment rules 2006, every E&P operator in India is obliged to provide all data elements pertaining to the entire E&P value chain to Government of India. This includes but not limited to geological, geophysical, petrophysical, geochemical, log, map, production data, tapes, cores, cuttings, other interpretaion and analytical reports etc.
DGH being the nodal agency of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on upstream E&P affairs, has started receiving E&P data from operators gradually subsequent to NELP regimes. Further one major role of DGH is to store and disseminate this precious oil field data of India.
It is widely accepted today that E&P dataset is essentially a national asset. This is quite true in view of the ever increasing technological advancement in the field of data processing, data interpretation etc. Even age-old E&P dataset might give new results in view of new technological infrastructure. That is why safeguarding national E&P data has become a prime area of focus for DGH recently.
- National Gas Hydrate Programme
As an unconventional hydrocarbon resource, methane hydrates have been the focus of our quest for meeting our energy demands and it was this objective that India’s National Gas Hydrate Program(NGHP) was launched. Steered by the ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas and technically ccoordinated by Directorate General Of Hydrocarbons (DGH), NGHP is a consortium of National E&P companies (Oil & Natural Gas Corporation ,Gas Authority of India Ltd.) and National Research Institutions(National Institute of Oceanography,National Geophysical Research Institute and National Institute of Ocean Technology).
References
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