Petroleum Minister reviews oil and gas projects in TS, AP

Hyderabad, June 26 (INN): Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan visited Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on June 25-26.

During the visit he reviewed the various oil and gas projects in the state of Telangana; marketing of petroleum products and LPG; proposed pipeline projects; Coal Bed Methane projects and performance of Bhagyanagar Gas Ltd.

The Minister reviewed the performance of private companies and Joint Ventures who are operating in exploration and production of oil & gas including CBM in the region.

Later, while holding a detailed review of marketing, city gas and CSR projects, he observed that people of the state should have ready availability of all kinds of petroleum products and shortage of any kind should be avoided.

Pradhan was accompanied by a delegation comprising K.D. Tripathi, Secretary Petroleum, A.K Sawhney, Additional Secretary, U.P. Singh, Joint Secretary (Exploration), S. Poundrik and DG, Director General of Hydrocarbon B.N. Talukdar. CMDs and senior officials of ONGC,IOC,HPCL,BPCL,GAIL,OIL also accompanied him. (INN)

Dharmendra Pradhan also visited a number of facilities and reviewed the various oil and gas projects in the East Coast of India, both offshore and onshore; the gas pipeline projects; marketing of petroleum products and LPG .

The Minister took a detailed review of the activities carried out by ONGC in this region, particularly in the Krishna-Godavari Offshore, in Visakhapatnam on June 24. He asked to revitalize exploration and production activities in shallow and deep waters by inducting best technology and imparting requisite training to the employees so as to unlock this potential and monetize it on a fast-track basis.

On June 25th, Pradhan visited ISPRL in Visakhapatnam, which is the first Strategic Crude Oil storage facility with 1.33 MMT capacity and an engineering marvel by itself.

Later in the day, Minister visited the state-of-the-art Japanese vessel Chikyu, which has been hired by the Government of India for gas hydrate exploration campaign in the high sea off Visakhapatnam coast. It is established by international surveys that India has huge potential of Gas hydrates. It was observed that if cost-effectively produced, it can be a game changer and bring a gas revolution in India. Indian experts from DGH,ONGC,OIL,GAIL and several scientific institutions like CSIR, NIOT and NGRI are working in collaboration with scientists from Japan and the US to develop gas hydrate on a commercial scale.

Pradhan also visited offshore facilities of GSPC (a Gujarat Government undertaking) and interacted with the MD and other senior GSPC officials to review the progress of the project.

Later in the evening Pradhan, along with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu reviewed the oil and gas projects in Andhra Pradesh. Pradhan assured the Chief Minister that Government of India is committed to extend all cooperation to the state government in various proposals initiated by the State Government.