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Cabinet changes pre-NELP oil, gas block terms to boost output
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SME Times News Bureau | 19 Jul, 2018
The Cabinet on Wednesday made changes to the pre-1999 New Exploration
Licensing Policy (NELP) oil and gas contracts to allow proportionate
sharing of royalty and cess between the operators of an area, without
putting the entire burden on state-run explorers ONGC and Oil India.
Briefing
reporters here after a Cabinet meeting, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra
Pradhan said the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) also
extended the policy of marketing and pricing freedom to natural gas
produced from difficult deep-water areas to cover fields in the
northeastern region.
"In order to incentivise some of the
pre-NELP private bidders, the government had put all the responsibility
of paying royalty and cess on the ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corp) and
OIL (Oil India Ltd)," Pradhan said.
"This, however, led to a
decline in the field output and the ONGC felt that paying 100 per cent
of the levies was making these unviable.
"CCEA has decided that
statutory levies including royalty and cess will now be shared in
proportion to the PI (participating interest) of the contractor in the
pre-NELP exploration blocks," he said.
Noting that the Cabinet
decision would impact seven fields, the Minister that the levy paid in
this manner has been made cost recoverable with prospective effect.
Thus, the statutory levies can now be first recovered from the sale of
hydrocarbons before sharing the profits with the government.
"This
will benefit pre-NELP exploration blocks in which fresh investment for
additional development and production activities is expected as sharing
of royalty and cess, and cost recoverability of same will help in making
additional investment commercially viable for licencee companies ONGC
and OIL," he said. In a related decision, the CCEA has extended
income tax benefits to all the 28 oil and gas fields awarded before NELP
came into force in 1999.
Noting that 13 of these blocks did not
have the tax benefits earlier, Pradhan said: "All pre-NELP blocks will
now get exemptions under Section 42 of the Income Tax Act."
This
provision allows companies to claim 100 per cent of the expenditure
incurred under a production sharing contract as tax deductible.
Pradhan
also said that based on the recommendations in the "Hydrocarbon Vision
2030 for North-East", the government has extended timelines for the
exploration and appraisal period in 10 operational blocks of the region
considering its geographical and logistical challenges.
"The exploration period has been increased by two years and appraisal period by one year," he said.
"Also,
to stimulate natural gas production in the region, the government has
allowed marketing, including pricing freedom for natural gas, to be
produced from discoveries which are yet to commence production as on
July 1, 2018."
The CCEA also relaxed the timeline from seven days
to 15 days for giving written notice to notify the occurrence of a
"force majeure" crisis event in a production sharing contract.
"The
approvals given today (Wednesday) are expected to help in ensuring the
expeditious development of hydrocarbon resources," a Petroleum Ministry
statement said.
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