Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan called out state-owned oil and gas companies ONGC and OIL for not monetising oil and gas fields for a long period of time.
At the launch of the third round of auctions for small fields with proven reserves under the Discovered Small Fields (DSF) regime, the Minister said, "If a company has come into possession of a resource through a process, it does not mean they will have it indefinitely."
He further added that the government would look into methods to monetise such resources at the earliest.
The Union Minister called on the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons and the Oil Ministry so as to present a way to quickly monetize undeveloped resources.
"If someone does not monetise these resources, new enterprises will have to be brought in (to do so)," he said
As per reports, the latest round of DSF auction offers 75 discoveries covering 13,000 sq km with estimated hydrocarbon reserves of 230 million tones.
According to the officials of Development, the government is encouraging ONGC to sell off its stakes in maturing oil and gas fields. This will require significant capital investment to maintain output levels.
The government is also looking to bring in foreign partners to accelerate production for the development in oil and gas blocks in the Krishna Godavari basin of the country.
Over the past five years, the crude oil production of state-owned upstream players ONGC and OIL has fallen with natural gas production remaining stagnant.
