Government of India has approved a new policy for exploration and also defined the norms for pricing of existing and new discoveries made in difficult areas. The petroleum minister said the new oil and gas exploration policy will now be based on a revenue-sharing model, as opposed to cost-and-output-based norms earlier. The difficult areas for which the new pricing norms have now been formulated are defined as those from deep-water, ultra deep-water and high pressure-high temperature areas. Such areas were not considered when prices were fixed for normal gas discoveries in 2014. The bulk of such fields are with Reliance Industries and state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp.

He said the new exploration licensing policy will allow production of both conventional and unconventional hydrocarbons, including shale gas, under a single license. Among the other decisions of the cabinet pertaining to the oil and gas sector, a Rs.8,000-crore outlay was provided to extend subsidised cooking gas to 50 million poor families in the name of the woman member, and the extension of contracts for 28 older hydrocarbon blocks.

He said companies will be provided calibrated marketing freedom, and also a pre-determined ceiling price discovered from global benchmarks.