The Cabinet committee on economic affairs on Thursday gave three more years to companies that are drilling for oil and gas in the blocks awarded to them based on their commitment to perform exploratory work.

The idea is to compensate for the time lost in undertaking the proposed work due to lack of deep water rigs or drilling platforms since 2007 onwards as many countries expedited their oil exploration in a bid to tide over rising energy costs.

The main beneficiaries include ONGC and Reliance Industries, who would otherwise have to relinquish the blocks and pay the equivalent of the unfinished work programme to the government. Even getting extra time is a costly affair which involved paying damages at the rate of 10-30% and furnishing bank guarantee of up to the entire amount of pending work.

?With grant of drilling moratorium, the objective of accelerated exploration of hydrocarbons in the country would be accomplished, which may lead to new discoveries of oil and gas,? an official statement said after the meeting of CCEA chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The moratorium starting January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2010 is granted to deep water blocks awarded up to the fifth round of auction of blocks under the new exploration licensing policy, where drilling commitments exist as on January 1, 2009. Thirty exploration blocks would get the benefit.

ONGC CMD RS Sharma said had it not been for the moratorium, the state-owned firm would have to surrender the blocks. ?We had invested about Rs 8,000 crore in seismic surveys, data acquisition and interpretation and drilling of some wells in the 16 blocks. We would have lost this,? PTI quoted Sharma as saying.

In a separate decision, the CCEA allowed ONGC?s overseas arm ONGC Videsh to exit from a natural gas block in Trinidad and Tobago. OVL had 51% stake in North Coast Marine Area 2 (NCMA 2) project along with co-venturer Mittal Energy Ltd, government stated here. OVL had spent $1 million at the time of quitting the project.

The offshore block NCMA-2 held by ONGC-Mittal Energy ? the joint venture between OVL and Mittal Investment Sarl ? is estimated to have in-place reserves of two trillion cubic feet of gas. But MIS, the holding company of Lakshmi N Mittal family?s interest, decided to exit the project because of the global economic meltdown. Considering all aspects and the then depressed markets, OVL came to the conclusion that in the absence of MIS, it would not like to continue on a 100% standalone basis with an estimated expenditure of $304 million, the government said.

Booster dose for healthcare

The CCEA approved the National Programme for Prevention and Control of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and stroke on Thursday for implementation in the remaining period of 11th Five-Year plan at an estimated outlay of Rs 1230.90 crore. Of this, Rs 499.38 crore is meant for interventions on diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and stroke and Rs 731.52 crore for cancer control on a cost-sharing basis between the Centre and states in 80:20 ratio. The programme will be implemented in 20,000 sub-centres and 700 community health centres in 100 districts across 15 states by promoting healthy lifestyle, opportunistic screening of persons above 30 years, establishment of non-communicable disease clinics at CHC and district level, development of trained manpower and strengthening tertiary level health facilities.

Nalanda University Bill to be tabled in Monsoon Session

The move to establish Nalanda university in Bihar got a push with the Cabinet on Thursday giving its nod for tabling the Nalanda University Bill in the monsoon session of Parliament. Enactment of the Bill will enable setting up of the new university in Bihar at an estimated cost of more than Rs 1000 crore.

Information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni pointed out that the establishment of the university would facilitate the revival of Nalanda as a center of excellence in East Asia and South Asia, reflecting in some measures the role played by university in ancient times. According to the Bill prepared by the ministry of external affairs the university will function as a public private partnership with the funds being provided by member states.