Centre’s draft marginal field policy provides slew of sops

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Mumbai, May 8 The petroleum ministry has recommended a slew of sops for exploration of marginal fields to be hired out from the stock available with state-run Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL).

The ministry in the draft marginal field policy has called for royalty to be levied at 50% of the current rate applicable to nominated blocks and zero cess to be paid for marginal fields. Besides, in order to exploit marginal discoveries and unlock the potential, market price should be allowed as per provisions of Nelp VII terms. The contractor would have freedom to market oil and gas at arms length. The contractor may also use excess capacities of national oil Companies (NOCs) pipelines for product supply at mutually agreed cost.

According to sources, 22 marginal fields of ONGC would be soon offered under the marginal field policy. The draft policy, a copy of which is in FE’s possession, has called for adoption of a single rate of production sharing to be termed as ‘production sharing agreement’. According to the policy, a field would be treated as marginal field only if it is part of a block awarded to a NOC on nomination basis.