{"id":55381,"date":"2025-09-27T20:35:59","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T15:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=55381"},"modified":"2025-10-03T11:38:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T06:08:03","slug":"natural-gas-discovery-andaman-basin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/27-09-2025\/natural-gas-discovery-andaman-basin","title":{"rendered":"Natural Gas Discovery in Andaman Basin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS1\/ Geography<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>In News<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Oil India Ltd (OIL) has reported a significant natural gas discovery off the Andaman Islands, marking the first confirmed hydrocarbon occurrence in the region.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Hydrocarbon Potential of Andaman Basin<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Hydrocarbon Resource Assessment Study (HRAS): <\/strong>Estimates 371 MMTOE (Million Metric Tons of Oil Equivalent) in the AN Basin.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It is part of the <strong>Bengal-Arakan sedimentary system.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lies at the <strong>tectonic boundary of the Indian and Burmese plates<\/strong> lead to the creation of stratigraphic traps conducive for hydrocarbon accumulation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Previous gas finds in North Sumatra (Indonesia) and Irrawaddy-Margui (Myanmar) suggest similar potential in Andaman.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Strategic Importance for India<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Energy Security: <\/strong>India currently imports 88% of crude oil and 50% of natural gas.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Major LNG import sources: Qatar, US, UAE.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Andaman discovery can help reduce import dependence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Economic &amp; Industrial Impact:<\/strong> Supports India\u2019s target of raising the share of natural gas to 15% in the primary energy basket by 2030 (currently ~6%).\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Aligns with the vision of a Gas-Based Economy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Geostrategic Advantage: <\/strong>Andaman Basin sits in the energy-rich corridor from Myanmar to Indonesia.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Strengthens India\u2019s position in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Government Initiatives for Gas Exploration<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP), 2016:<\/strong> Uniform license for exploration and production; introduced Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/19-08-2025\/india-deep-ocean-mission\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/19-08-2025\/india-deep-ocean-mission\"><strong>National Deep Water Exploration Mission<\/strong>: <\/a>Focused on drilling a large number of deepwater wells to exploit offshore reserves.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>National Data Repository &amp; National Seismic Program:<\/strong> Enhance data access for explorers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>FDI Policy: <\/strong>100% FDI allowed in the natural gas sector under automatic route.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Challenges Ahead<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Commercial viability yet to be confirmed <\/strong>(size of reserves, ease of extraction, production costs).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Environmental sensitivity <\/strong>of the Andaman ecosystem.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ultra-deepwater drilling costs are very high<\/strong>; technology and infrastructure requirements are significant.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Balancing energy exploration vs ecological conservation<\/strong> will be a key policy challenge.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Source: TH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>In News<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Oil India Ltd (OIL) has reported a significant natural gas discovery off the Andaman Islands, marking the first confirmed hydrocarbon occurrence in the region.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Hydrocarbon Potential of Andaman Basin<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Hydrocarbon Resource Assessment Study (HRAS): Estimates 371 MMTOE (Million Metric Tons of Oil Equivalent) in the AN Basin.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">It is part of the Bengal-Arakan sedimentary system.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Lies at the tectonic boundary of the Indian and Burmese plates lead to the creation of stratigraphic traps conducive for hydrocarbon accumulation.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Previous gas finds in North Sumatra (Indonesia) and Irrawaddy-Margui (Myanmar) suggest similar potential in Andaman.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/27-09-2025\/natural-gas-discovery-andaman-basin\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55381"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55781,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55381\/revisions\/55781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}