Govt sets up panel to localise fuel exploration

The ministry of petroleum and natural gas has constituted a steering committee as part of the ‘make in India’ initiative to recommend ways to indigenise the complex oil and gas exploration work undertaken by upstream companies.

The steering committee, which will have representation from the government and the industry, will also suggest changes in the public procurement norms to mandate aggregation of requirement and local content as procurement criteria and also prepare a blue print for setting up of dedicated manufacturing zones/ clusters catering to oil field services.

The panel comprises representatives from the ministries of petroleum and commerce, department of industrial policy and promotion, state-owned oil firms, and representatives from Ficci, CII and Association of Oil and Gas Operators.

The actionable areas identified by the steering committee have been divided into short-term (one year) and medium term (three years) goals. While the short-term goal is to change the public procurement norms, other initiatives like 50 per cent indigenisation in upstream sector and setting up of manufacturing zones/clusters catering to oil field services such as ship building, offshore platforms and rigs, over a period of three years.

Oil ministry officials said the panel has started groundwork on the identification of equipment and products in the sector, which can be built domestically.

At present the level of indigenisation in the opal and gas sector is low with most equipment in use coming from either European or American suppliers.

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