Nutrient Management – A Challenging Task Ahead

by - Dr Mangala Rai, Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), & Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)

Fertilizer is the mainstay of food production in the country; hence its judicious use is the need of the hour. The integrated nutrient management is a panacea for sound soil health, higher farm productivity and profitability. Accordingly, our Government has taken historical decisions on nutrient-based pricing and subsidy, meeting additional cost of fortification/ coating of fertilizers, payment of freight subsidy for all fertilizers on actual basis and revival of single super phosphate industry. Simultaneously, to ensure adequate supply of fertilizers, the fertilizer industry needs to be cajoled from the continued stagnation due to low level of investment.

To reduce dependence on import of fertilizers, the indigenously available nutrient sources like low grade rock phosphate, waste mica and phosphogypsum need to be promoted as a source of phosphorus, potassium and sulphur, respectively. At the same time, there should be adequate provision for setting up of compost and bio-fertilizer units in rural and urban areas. The soil testing service requires to be strengthened for precise and efficient fertilizer use.

Fertilizers have played a stellar role in improving crop productivity and production and would continue to do so in future as well. However, presently there is a growing concern about the low use efficiency of nutrients which range from 2 to 50%. Such a low efficiency increases the cost of production and leads to severe environmental consequences. It is estimated that just by raising the nutrient-use efficiency by 10%, the country can save almost 20 million ha of land at the current level of productivity.

The impaired soil health and the declined productive potential is primarily due to imbalanced fertilizer use coupled with low use of organic manures. The soils are not being adequately replenished even with the macro-nutrients, let alone secondary and micro-nutrients. The improper nutrient management has, therefore, led to multi-nutrient deficiencies in Indian soils. The deficiencies range from 3% of copper to 89% of nitrogen with other elements falling in the range. The deficiencies are becoming more critical for sulphur, zinc and boron. About 47 million ha in major cropping systems are deficient in sulphur. The zinc deficiency is rampant in alluvial soils of Indo-Gangetic plain, black soils of Deccan Plateau and red and other associated soils. The boron deficiencies are showing up in red, lateritic and calcareous soils of Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal. The limiting nutrients by not allowing the full expression of other nutrients, lower fertilizer responses and crop productivity.

The site-specific integrated nutrient management encompassing conjunctive use of inorganic and organic fertilizers is the most ideal system for maintaining soil health and enhancing nutrient-use efficiency. The country will require about 45 MT of nutrients to produce 300 MT of foodgrains by 2025. Therefore, the fertilizer industry has to augment fertilizer production substantially from the present level of about 22 million tonnes of nutrients to keep pace with the growing food demands of the country. At the same time, the Government should have adequate provisions for setting up of units of compost and biofertilizers in rural and urban areas of the country.

There is near stagnation in capacity and investment in fertilizer sector since 2000, which has adversely affected the production of fertilizers in the country. The existing gap of about 10 million tonnes of fertilizers between demand and supply is likely to grow to 16 million tonnes by the end of 11th Plan thus necessitating import which would, obviously, cause drain on the state exchequer.

The fertilizer industry needs to gear up to meet national demands in view of the rise in the cost of raw materials/intermediates and finished fertilizers in the international markets. The country lacks raw materials for manufacturing phosphatic and potassic fertilizers. Large quantities of high grade rock phosphate and phosphoric acid for the manufacture of phosphatic fertilizers are imported. Potassium fertilizer is fully imported as the indigenous sources of potash are not of high quality and uneconomic for exploitation. The present prices of rock phosphate, sulphur and phosphoric acid used for the manufacture of phosphate fertilizers have increased by 3.5, 6.4 and 2.8 times, respectively, compared to the prices of last year.

Appropriate policy initiatives are, therefore, required to restore health of fertilizer industry, and make it a vibrant sector to face formidable challenges of supplying adequate quantities of fertilizers to domestic agricultural sector. The investment friendly policy is the need of the hour to enhance capacity through revamp, expansion, new plants and joint ventures abroad. A start has already been made in developing such ventures with Morocco, Jordan, Senegal, Oman, and UAE with 100% buy back arrangements for the products. A large number of old Naphtha and fuel oil based plants (present capacity being 26%) with about 2.5 times more cost of production compared to gas based plants need to be phased out. Seeing the present and future requirements, the fertilizer sector should have priority allocations of the natural gas. Although the supplies are going to improve soon with the production from the Krishna-Godavari (KG) Basin fields, the demand is likely to outstrip supplies.

The subsidy, hitherto, was fixed product-wise and not as per nutrient content in the product, and hence was a cause of nutrient imbalance and deterioration of soil health. Also, the fertilizers fortified and coated with micro- and secondary-nutrients could not be produced on a large-scale due to no provision in the fertilizer policy for meeting their additional cost on account of fortification and coating. To promote balance use of fertilizers, the Government has recently taken historical decisions on moving to nutrient based pricing and subsidy, and allowing additional cost of fortification and coating of fertilizers to manufacturers. The new policy would broaden the basket of fertilizers and enable fertilizer use as per soil and crop requirements. The other policy decisions taken by the Government are on paying freight subsidy for all fertilizers on actual basis instead of uniform basis and allowing higher rate of concession to single super phosphate (SSP) fertilizer. The freight subsidy on actual basis would ensure wider spread of fertilizers and their availability in distant areas from the manufacturing sites/ports. The upward revision of rate of concession on SSP would revive the SSP industry; suffering sickness for long, due to ad hoc and low rate of concession. Needless to say, the SSP containing 11% sulphur would correct widespread sulphur deficiency in Indian soils as well, besides serving as a P source.

Presently, only 15 fertilizers are covered under subsidy/concession scheme and a large number of other fertilizers including the products containing secondary and micronutrients are outside the ambit of subsidy policy. Hence, incentive for their use would be required. Also to reduce dependence on import of fertilizer raw materials/intermediates and finished products, we need to utilize all indigenously available nutrient sources. There are good reserves of low grade rock phosphate and potassium-bearing mica in the country. The reserves are uneconomic for exploitation as fertilizers could be used for production of enriched manures containing P and K through co-composting. The low grade phosphate rock could also be used for direct application in acid soils.

Phosphogypsum, a byproduct of phosphoric acid based fertilizer industry, contains 16 to 18% S and can serve as a potential source of sulphur to crops. Over 5 to 6 million tonnes of phosphogypsum are generated per annum by the industry. It may be included under FCO as sulphur fertilizer and considered for concession/transport subsidy. The product has a potential to supply about 1 million tonne of sulphur annually. There are also significant reserves of gypsum containing 16 to 18% S in the country, which can be exploited as source of sulphur besides serving as an amendment for sodic lands. The sources of lime like limestone/dolomite, basic slag from steel industries and lime sludge from the paper industries should be used for liming of acid soils to enhance their nutrient/fertilizer-use efficiency. Liming could save half of the recommended fertilizer, especially for legumes and pulses. Mass movement on vermi-composting, residue recycling and green manuring is to be undertaken as a mission in each and every village in the country.

The geo-referenced soil fertility maps including macro, secondary and micro-nutrients should be prepared speedily at district and block levels to serve as guide for proper fertilizer allocation, distribution and application. A good number of well equipped and functional soil testing laboratories, at least one in each district, are required to have precise soil test-based fertilizer recommendations. Research needs to be guided towards development of nano-fertilizers for enhancing nutrient-use efficiency, which is still low for majority of nutrients.

Indian Railways – New Vistas of Growth

by - K.C.Jena, Chairman, Railway Board

Indian Railway network is the prime infrastructural sector of the country and in view of the fact that it is five to six times more energy efficient, four times more efficient in land use and significantly superior from the standpoints of environment impact and safety, compared to other transportation options, it needs to expand and develop in order to keep pace with the growth of Indian economy.
A massive investment is urgently required for the development of the railway system. The budgetary support to the railways has been increasing, but the quantum leap that the Indian Railways is seeking to undertake, requires much more in terms of resources. The high growth path that the country has embarked upon under the 11th Five Year Plan, envisages that Indian Railway would need to spend around Rs. 2,51,000 crore (US$ 62 billion) on various capacity enhancement measures over the next 5 years. A major part of the investment would come from internally generated resources and Budgetary support to the extent feasible.
However, to meet the massive investment needed, these would need to be leveraged to mobilize an adequate level of extra budgetary resources. Around Rs. 1,00,000 crore is expected to accrue from extra budgetary resources including Public Private Partnership (PPP). PPP would, thus, play a crucial role in the attainment of the strategic goals outlined above. In the past Indian Railways had made several attempts to rope in private participation in areas such as catering, wagon ownership and leasing and joint ventures for rail infrastructure projects. These efforts were, however, limited in scale and scope.
The current strategy is to leverage private capital through PPPs to the maximum extent in areas which are amenable to PPPs to improve efficiencies and control costs. To begin with the following projects have been identified to be implemented fully or partly on PPP route:

Construction of Dedicated Freight Corridor
It has been planned to construct a new Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), initially covering about 2700 route kms equivalent to around 5000 track kilometers with an approximate cost of Rs. 28000 crore (US$6 billion) linking the ports of western India and the ports and mines of Eastern India to Delhi and Punjab respectively.
The construction of this corridor will be implemented through an SPV which has been created for the purpose through a mix of Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) and PPP methods. Ministry of Railways is in the process of selecting a global consultant to advise on the concession agreement, principles of track access charges and other financing and bidding issues. It is envisaged that innovative ideas on design, construction and maintenance of railway to achieve optimal life – cycle costs would be forthcoming through PPP especially as the work progresses on the initial two corridors and further corridors are taken up. The concessionaire could also tap additional ancillary revenue streams through commercial exploitation of land, construction of freight terminal/logistic part/ICDs etc. World Class Railway StationsRailway stations at metropolitan cities and important tourist centers need to be modernized to provide world class passenger amenities and services to the multitude of passengers using these stations. Indian Railway is planning to do so by attracting private investments in the area by leveraging the land around and airspace above the stations. The concessionaire would be expected to construct and maintain the operational and passenger areas free of cost, share the revenue earned from the real-estate created and hand over the same after the expiry of the concessional period. Altogether 24 stations have been identified in the first stage. These are CST Mumbai (Carnac Bunder), Pune, Howrah (Kolkata), Lucknow, New Delhi, Anand Vihar and Bijwasan at Delhi, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Varanasi, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Secunderabad, Ahmedabad, Patna, Bhubaneshwar, Mathura, Agra, Gaya, Jaipur, Nagpur, Tirupati, Bangalore and Bhopal. Pre-qualification process for bidders for the pilot project for New Delhi Station has been initiated. Redevelopment of Patna, Secunderabad and Mumbai will also be taken up during the current year. Development of other stations and green field passenger terminals would be taken up subsequently.

Commercial Utilization of Vacant Land
Indian Railways has approximately 43,000 hectares of vacant land. These are mostly situated alongside tracks in longitudinal strips, around railway stations, and in railway colonies especially in metro and other important cities/towns with the potential of being used commercially to generate revenue as well as capital for modernization and capacity addition. A new body, namely, Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) has been set up under the Railway (Amendment) Act 2005 to pursue, inter alia, the main objectives of generating revenue and up grading railway assets. 110 sites have already been entrusted to RLDA.

Manufacturing of locomotives/coaches/wagons Units
With sustained economic growth and the resultant demand for rail transport, the requirement of rolling stock has increased manifold. The requirement of coaches/Electrical Multiple Units is projected at 22689 vehicle units for the XIth Five Year Plan. The gap between the requirement and the combined capacity of the two Production Units at Integral Coach Factory, Perambur and Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala (around 2500 per annum) is planned to be bridged by augmenting the existing capacity of these Production Units and setting up a new manufacturing unit through a Joint Venture under PPP. Similarly, the requirement of Electric and Diesel Locomotives has been projected at 1800 each during the 11th Five Year Plan i.e. 360 locos per year. The existing in –house capacity for the manufacture of these locomotives is presently 150 per annum and can be augmented to 200 locos each per annum for Electric and Diesel locos. The gap between the requirement and capacity in this case too, is planned to be bridged by setting up two locomotive manufacturing units, one each for diesel and electric locomotives, through PPP. The possibility of PPP through long-term demand guarantee to prospective manufactures of modern wagons is also being explored. The new wagon investment scheme is another means of attracting private investment in building railway infrastructure under the PPP initiative.

High Speed Corridors
Pre-feasibility studies are being awarded for a few identified corridors to examine the linking of a few of our bustling metropolises with high speed rail links to facilitate train travel over a distance of 600-1000 km within 2.5 to 4 hours. All options including PPP will be explored towards this end.

Operation of Container Trains and Construction of Multi-modal Logistics Parks
Private operators have been allowed to manage rail-borne Container Services on Indian Railways. Concession agreement setting out the terms of such operation has been signed with 15 private operators. The scheme is also open for other operators to join. So far private operators have inducted 45 rakes and built 3 ICDs at Garihassru, Patli and Loni. Policy framework to facilitate setting up of Multi-modal Logistics Parks (MLPs) in SEZs or private land with rail connectivity has been formulated. The policy also envisages utilization of surplus railway land available at suitable locations for development of MLPs and/or bulk or dedicated freight terminals.

Port Connectivity
RVNL has been mandated to undertake capacity augmentation works and port connectivity projects by establishing Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs). Some of the projects taken up or under consideration of RVNL include Palanpur –Gandhidham gauge conversion project (linking Kandla and Mundhra Ports to North India), Haridaspur – Paradeep New Line (linking iron ore mines of Orissa and Jharkhand to Paradeep port), Anugul-Sukinda (linking iron-ore and coal-belts of Orissa), Obulavaripalli-Krishnapatnam Port of Andhra Pradesh, Bharuch-Dahej and Surat-Hazira projects in the State of Gujarat and Penn-Rewas Port link (Maharashtsa).

Budget Hotels and Food Plazas
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has been mandated to develop catering services, budget hotels and food plazas at major stations through involvement of private entrepreneurs. IRCTC is commissioning new Food Plazas in Railway premises with private participation. The license period for food plazas is of nine years with a provision of extension for another three years. Already 53 such Food Plazas have been commissioned. Indian Railways is also in the process of carrying out an examination of the scope of need-based ‘base kitchens’ and ‘launderettes’ with public private partnership to strengthen the infrastructure for on-board services.
Call Centers are also being planned under PPP by IRCTC to cater to the need for information dissemination to the railway customers. Indian Railways is also planning to launch new services for the luxury tourism segment on the pattern of ‘Palace on Wheel’ in partnership with other interested State Governments. The above mentioned list of initiatives is not exhaustive. This is but a glimpse into the array of such activities planned by the Railways that seek to place the efforts of the Indian Railways on a more sound footing in its quest for a world class infrastructure.
Such efforts carry the potential of paving the way for the giant leap that this organization has been gearing up for over the past few years. The PPP route has well and truly opened up new vistas of growth opportunities for the Indian Railways.

Augmenting Oil & Gas Production

*PIB Features. Inputs from the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas

India’s energy needs are growing with rising income levels, burgeoning population and a rapidly growing economy. Indigenous energy resources may not be sufficient in the long run to sustain a GDP growth rate of 9%. The country’s energy supply system continues to be dependent on fossil fuels, which are finite. Oil and gas share in the energy consumption basket has reached a level of about 41%. Average per capita energy consumption in India is about 358 kilogram of oil equivalent (kgoe) as against 1681 kgoe world wide indicating high energy requirement in future in order to maintain the pace of economic development in the country.

The total primary energy mix for India comprises Coal 51%, Crude oil 32%, Natural Gas 9%, Hydro 7% and Nuclear energy 1%. Whereas the crude oil consumption of India is about same as global average share of natural gas in primary energy mix i.e. 9% in the country is significantly lower than the world average of 24%, indicating huge potential of growth in the natural gas sector. Import dependence accounts for about 30% of our Total Primary Commercial Energy Supply (TPCES). However, oil imports constitute more than 70% of our total oil consumption.

Oil & Gas Demand Supply Scenario
Consumption of petroleum products in the financial year 2007-08 was about 129 million metric tonnes (MMT), which puts India as fifth largest consumer after USA, China, Japan and Russia. Domestic crude oil production in the country is about 34 MMT per annum. Although total imports of crude oil and petroleum products in 2007-08 were of the order of 144 MMT including 121 MMT of crude oil amounting to nearly US$ 83.2 billion (Rs.3,34,203 crore), India has also exported petroleum products amounting to 39 MMT, earning foreign exchange worth nearly US$ 26.7 billion (Rs.1,07,603 crore). After exports, our net imports amount to nearly 105 MMT of crude and petroleum products worth nearly US$ 56.473 billion (Rs.2,26,600 crore).
In 2007-08, natural gas supply was of the order of 114 Million Metric Standard Cubic Metres per day (MMSCMD), out of which 88 MMSCMD was through domestic production and remaining supply of 26 MMSCMD was through import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). However, gas supply position in the country is likely to improve on production of additional 40 MMSCMD of natural gas in 2008 and rising to 80 MMSCMD in 2011.

Enhancing Oil & Gas Production
In order to increase oil & gas security for the country, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas along with PSUs have adopted a multi-pronged strategy, which inter-alia, includes: increasing exploration efforts through the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP). Under the Six rounds of NELP, 162 blocks have been awarded and 62 discoveries have already been made.

In seventh round of NELP, 45 exploration blocks are likely to be awarded; improving the recovery factor from existing major fields by implementing Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)/Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) schemes. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) has taken up 15 fields for this purpose at an estimated investment of Rs. 13,651 crore, which would also help in accelerating oil production from these fields; acquiring acreages abroad and tapping alternate sources of energy such as Coal Bed Methane.

New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP)
The Government approved a policy called New Exploration Licensing Policy in 1999 with the objective to attract significant risk capital from Indian and Foreign companies, state of the art technologies, new geological concepts and best management practices to explore oil and gas resources in the country. 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is allowed in E&P sector under NELP regime. Companies either Indian or Foreign may bid for one or more blocks, alone or in association with other companies, through an unincorporated or incorporated venture.

Licenses for exploration are being awarded only through a competitive bidding system and National Oil Companies (NOCs) are required to compete on an equal footing with Indian and foreign companies to secure Petroleum Exploration Licences (PELs). Six rounds of bids have so far been concluded under NELP, in which Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) for 162 exploration blocks have been signed.

Under NELP, 62 oil and gas discoveries in 17 blocks have already been made in Cambay onland, North East Coast and Krishna-Godavari deepwater areas, for which, development plans by the operators, viz., Cairn, RIL and Niko are in progress. The NELP investment commitments are of the order of US$ 8 billions on exploration alone, out of which, about US$ 4 billons has already been made. This investment in E&P sector will increase manifolds once development of discoveries progresses. With Exploration and development efforts made under NELP, Natural Gas production in the country is likely to be doubled from the present level of gas production of about 90 million standard cubic metres per day by end of 11th Five Year Plan. Commercial production of oil and gas from two blocks from Gujarat has already commenced.

Improved Oil Recovery/Enhanced Oil Recovery Projects
Work programmes have been undertaken primarily by ONGC for IOR/EOR in its 15 largest fields, which account for 80% of ONGC’s reserves and production. The challenge for ONGC is to arrest the decline of crude oil production at the rate of 7-8% per annum. To do so, ONGC has made an investment of about Rs. 13,434 crore on Improved Oil Recovery and Enhanced Oil Recovery projects. Through these efforts, incremental crude oil gain for ONGC was of the order of 40.1 MMT till 2007-08. The incremental production over the base case is expected to increase significantly from about 5 MMT in 2002-2003 to 11 MMT in 2007-2008.

The total work incorporating innovative technological solutions include installations/upgradation of production facilities, laying of pipelines, drilling of about 650 new development wells, side tracking of existing wells, zone transfers, optimization of artificial lift systems etc. In addition, private sector /JV companies and Oil India Limited (OIL) are also implementing Improved Oil Recovery /Enhanced Oil Recovery schemes in a few select reservoirs of the producing fields.

Oil And Gas From Abroad
In view of unfavourable demand – supply balance of hydrocarbons in the country, acquiring equity oil and gas assets overseas is one of the important components of enhancing energy security. The Government is encouraging national oil companies to aggressively pursue equity oil and gas opportunities overseas. Oil & gas production from overseas can be swapped, sold or brought to Indian refineries on commercial considerations. ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) today has presence in 18 countries, viz. Russia, Sudan, Vietnam, Iran, Libya, Syria, Myanmar, Iraq, Egypt, Qatar, Cuba, Nigeria, Sao-Tome-Principe Joint Development Zone, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Turkmenistan and Republic of Congo. OVL has a target to acquire 20 MMTPA of O+OEG production by 2020 but efforts are on to achieve it even earlier. OVL produced about 8.76 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) of oil and equivalent gas during the year 2007-08 from its assets abroad in Sudan, Vietnam, Russia, Syria and Colombia. In 2007-08, OVL acquired 11 blocks and OIL-IOC acquired one block. So far, Oil PSUs altogether have presence in 22 countries.

Alternate Sources of Oil and Gas
The national endeavor to bridge the ever-increasing gap between demand and supply of petroleum products in India by intensifying exploratory efforts for oil and gas in the Indian sedimentary basins and abroad need to be supported by other alternate sources of energy like Coal Bed Methane, Gas Hydrates, Under ground Coal Gasification.

Coal Bed Methane
Coal Bed Methane (CBM) is a natural gas (Methane) adsorbed in coal and lignite seams and is an eco-friendly source of energy. Coal is both the source and reservoir rock for CBM. CBM production is done by simple depressurization and dewatering process. To harness this new source of energy in the country, the Government approved a comprehensive CBM policy in July, 1997 for exploration and production of CBM gas. As of now, 23 CBM Blocks were awarded through competitive international bidding in first three rounds of CBM policy, under which blocks are being operated by technically competent companies. 2 blocks were awarded on nomination basis and one block through FIPB route. Thus a total of 26 CBM exploration blocks are under operation. So far, 6 Trillion Cubic Feet (TCF) reserves have already been established in 4 CBM blocks. First commercial production of CBM has commenced from July 2007.

Underground Coal Gassification
ONGC entered into an Agreement of Collaboration (AOC-MOU) with National Mining Research Centre-Skochinsky Institute of Mining (NMRC-SIM), Russia. In the selected Vastan mine block, ONGC carried out seismic survey was carried out and 18 boreholes were drilled for detailed UCG site characterization. Based on geological hydrological and geo-mechanical data analysis, Vastan in Gujarat and Hodu Sindri in Rajasthan have been found suitable for UCG station. Pilot production of Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) at Vastan by ONGC would commence in 2009-10.

Gas Hydrates
Gas hydrates, generally found in deep sea, are basically methane molecules trapped in ice. At present, there is no commercial production of gas hydrates in any part of the world and the technology is only at research and development stage. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has a roadmap regarding exploration of gas hydrates, which is under implementation. Prioritization of areas of operations have since been made and a road map for National Gas Hydrate Programme (NGHP) has been prepared. The Directorate of Hydrocarbons is the nodal agency. In accordance with the R&D efforts, the drill ship “JOIDES Resolution” has collected good quality gas hydrates samples in the sedimentary basins in India. Results from the second site in KG basin are particularly remarkable. These have shown the presence of a 128 m thick gas hydrate layer indicating massive to dispersed gas hydrates. The gas hydrate samples were physically collected for the first time in India, which is the third country in the world after USA and Japan to do so in its deep waters. The resource estimation of gas hydrates is in progress.
Achievements In E&P Sector
The achievements made in exploration and production during the last four years are --
 121 oil and gas discoveries have been made from 2004-05 to 2007-08 in various States, Shallow water and Deepwater areas in Eastern & Western offshore. In the financial year, 2007-08, 48 oil and gas discoveries have been made.
 The position of balance recoverable reserves was of the order of 1573 MMTOE in 2003-04, which has increased to a level of 1843 MMTOE, maintaining positive reserve replacement ratio in last 4 years.
 Overseas oil and gas production in 2003-04 was of the order of 3.86 MMTOE which has doubled in the last 4 years and reached a level of 8.76 MMTOE in 2007-08.
 ONGC Videsh Limited and other PSUs have a presence in 22 countries world wide as against 7 countries in 2003-04.
 First CBM gas production in India started from July 2007 from a CBM block in West Bengal.
 During X plan period, crude oil production was about 33 MMT per annum. Projection of average crude oil production during XI plan period (2007-12) has been targeted at 41.35 MMT per annum, which is 24% higher than X plan actual.
 First natural gas production of 40 MMSCMD from deepwater areas is likely to commence in 3rd quarter of 2008.
 Under NELP, Government has awarded 72 exploration blocks in the last 4 years which has increased area under exploration by 30%. In the seventh round, 57 exploration blocks were offered, out of which, 45 exploration blocks are likely to be awarded.