Q1. Could you start by giving us a brief overview of your professional background, particularly focusing on your expertise in the industry?

I am a Mechanical Engineer by profession, and after graduation, I joined Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) in Assam in the year 1987. After working in Assam oil and gas fields for a couple of years, I moved to ONGC's largest asset, the Mumbai Offshore Fields. I enriched my experience by working offshore for several years before joining the ONGC Corporate Office in Delhi. In between, I was posted on deputation to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), which is a technical body under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG). Here, I stayed for several years and held important positions, including Chief Technical Officer and Executive Director (Strategy and Planning).
I could gather good ideas on policies and regulations for the upstream sector, i.e., oil and gas exploration and production activities, contracts, and licensing, while working at DGH with the Ministry. Additionally, I learned about the E&P operations of many Private and multinational companies operating in India.
In 2024, I superannuated from ONGC as Executive Director after completing about 37 years of service. Thereafter, I am currently working as an Advisor and Consultant, advising some of the E & P Companies in India on resolving various contractual and regulatory issues they face.

Q2. What structural change is most reshaping investment decision-making in India’s upstream oil and gas sector today?

India, which is currently importing about 90% of crude oil and about 50% of natural gas to meet its growing energy demand, has no option but to find ways to increase domestic production of oil and gas, for which accelerated Exploration and Production (E &P) activities for oil and gas are paramount.
India has a rich history of E & P activities, which were initially dominated by the two National Oil Companies, namely ONGC and Oil India Limited (OIL). However, to attract foreign investment and technology, the Government opened up the sector way back in the 1990s, and oil and gas exploration blocks and discovered fields were awarded through international competitive bidding to many Indian Private and foreign companies. The primary contractual regime was the Production Sharing Contract (PSC).
However, in 2016, the Government introduced a much simpler, easy-to-administer Revenue Sharing Contract (RSC) regime under the Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP). Now, both exploration blocks and Discovered Fields are awarded under RSC.
The Government has been continuously implementing transformative reforms in the upstream sector to attract investment and technology to augment oil and gas production in the country. This is helping to address many of the companies' above-ground risks.
In addition, the government is addressing subsurface risks by spending significant funds to acquire high-quality Geoscientific Data in both Offshore and Onland Indian Sedimentary Basins and making it available to stakeholders through an upgraded National Data Repository (NDR).
Apart from the above, the approval processes have been made faster through online submissions and self-certification, with a thrust on “Ease of Doing Business”.
Recent revisions to Royalty Rates across all regimes in the upstream sector, as well as the introduction of higher incentives under the new oil and gas contracts, are also very encouraging.
The Government is also encouraging the exploration and extraction of alternative energy sources such as Coal Bed Methane (CBM) and Gas Hydrates.
The above multi-pronged approach by the Government would help attract both Indian and global E&P companies to India's upstream sector and encourage investment decisions.

Q3. Which policy reforms have had the most meaningful impact on improving investor confidence in India’s upstream sector?

As noted above, significant policy reforms are underway in the Indian Upstream Sector to attract investment.
The recent Amendments of the Oilfield Regulations and Development Act (ORD Act), 1948, and Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules (PNG Rules), 1959, in the year 2025 can be considered as game-changers, as several enabling provisions have been introduced to attract the E & P Companies to this sector to carry out unhindered Petroleum Operations.
Although several new provisions have been introduced under the Amended ORD Act and the PNG Rules, I would like to mention a couple.
•   Now, a Petroleum Lease can be granted for several years, until the Economic Life of the Fields, allowing the carrying out of all activities related to exploration, development, and production, helping the operator gain clear visibility into long-term investments.
•    Contract and Fiscal Stability clauses have been introduced to protect companies' economic interests through a compensation mechanism.
•    A Foreign Company can now choose a neutral international venue for arbitration, which would provide confidence to international companies.
•   Third-Party Access to available oil and gas infrastructure is now mandatory to help reduce costs and enable early monetization of hydrocarbon resources.
•    Decriminalization of offenses is also an important provision to reduce punitive risks.
•    Comprehensive Energy Project now allows exploration and exploitation of oil, gas, and renewable energies like solar, wind, geothermal, hydrogen, etc., from the same
Petroleum Lease to help the companies make full use of the energy potential in the awarded blocks and fields.

Q4. Where has digitalization materially improved offshore operations, reservoir management, or production reliability?

Many E & P companies in India are adopting digitalization of operations, application of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Analytics.
Digital Oilfields, both offshore and onland, are significantly more efficient and help the operators to monitor and manage their fields more effectively.
Other applications are primarily in predictive maintenance, analysis of oil and gas process operations, safety monitoring, and analysis of seismic, reservoir, and well data. Positive results are already visible in these areas.
However, the adoption of AI and the digitalization of processes need to be embraced gradually by all companies, based on their scale of operations, to improve operational efficiency.

Q5. Which hydrocarbon segments do you believe will remain strategically indispensable even under aggressive decarbonization scenarios?

India, being one of the fastest-growing economies, will continue to require a constant, uninterrupted supply of affordable, accessible, and sustainable energy. Fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas dominate India's primary energy mix, although a significant amount of Renewable Energy, especially solar, is now being generated. Other supply sources can be hydrogen, compressed biogas, biofuels like ethanol, wind, hydro, geothermal, and nuclear energies.
It is expected that fossil fuels will continue to dominate the energy supply for several decades. Still, decarbonization will also occur in this sector through the adoption of low-carbon operations, clean coal technologies, and Carbon Capture, Storage, and Utilization (CCUS) processes.
Among fossil fuels, Natural Gas, being the cleanest, will be in high demand across all sectors for India to become a gas-based economy. One of the fastest-growing sectors is City Gas Distribution (CGD) for PNG and CNG, which will need an uninterrupted supply of natural gas.

Q6. How are global geopolitical developments influencing exploration priorities, supply security thinking, and investment flows into upstream energy?

The present geopolitical developments have significantly affected India’s energy security, as supplies of crude oil, LNG, and LPG from global suppliers have been constrained by the Hormuz crisis. Oil and LNG prices have increased significantly, resulting in higher import bills.
In this scenario, many countries, including India, have given renewed focus to accelerating E & P activities to augment domestic oil and gas production and become self-reliant in energy. In fact, the Indian Government has set a target to achieve energy independence by 2027, a key factor in ‘Viksit Bharat’.
International Oil Companies (IOCs) are giving higher priority to expediting the development of already discovered resources and to Infrastructure-led near-field exploration activities. However, significant IOC budgets are also allocated to frontier offshore deep- and ultra-deep-water exploration, where successes can yield giant discoveries. The recent successes in Guyana, Namibia, Egypt, Indonesia, and Brazil are proof in this regard.
India has a vast offshore sedimentary area on the East and West Coasts, but the deeper parts of the offshore are poorly explored, despite estimates of significant hydrocarbon resources.
India has initiated an aggressive exploration campaign for seismic data acquisition and exploratory drilling in such deep-water areas under the National Deepwater Mission, called ‘Samudra Manthan.’ It is also reaching out to IOCs for their participation in the Indian oil and gas sector. Currently, wells are being drilled in the Andaman Offshore areas by ONGC and OIL after several years. The Government is also funding drilling of Stratigraphic Wells in select offshore basins to acquire geoscientific data.
Several prominent IOCs have visited NDR at DGH and purchased data for analysis. The University of Houston in the USA is also managing a Data Center in Houston on behalf of DGH to showcase E&P opportunities in India to global investors.
As a result of the above concerted efforts of the Government, it is likely that, like British Petroleum, which has been present in the Indian E & P sector for the last several years, other IOCs will also participate in upcoming bid rounds of exploration blocks in offshore India and use their global knowledge and expertise to make mega discoveries in our country. Needless to say, India is a politically stable country with a readily available domestic market for oil and gas consumption, which are positive factors that attract global investment in India's upstream sector.

Q7. If you were an investor looking at companies within the space, what critical question would you pose to their senior management?

There are immense opportunities for global investors to collaborate with Indian E & P Companies in several areas, like helping to increase recovery factors from aging and matured fields by induction of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and other technologies through Technical Service Contacts, acquiring stakes in discovered or producing oil and gas blocks, or jointly bidding in exploration acreages. Indian NOCs and several Private Companies have adequate knowledge, experience, and resources to effectively and safely carry out Petroleum Operations, and collaboration with IOCs or International Service Companies will be a win-win situation for all the stakeholders.
In case of financial institutions and private equity investors considering extending financial support and lending to Indian E & P companies, they should look into the background of the Indian Companies, the experience and expertise of their senior management, HSE and regulatory compliances, current portfolios, exploration, development, and production plans, as well as marketing tie-ups and future growth strategies.