By The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared the ‘Samudra Manthan’ National Offshore Exploration Scheme on Thursday, July 31, 2026, with a total outlay of Rs 84,084 crore for the period running through FY2030-31.
Run by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas as a Central Sector Scheme, it aims to catalyse reserve accretion of over 600 million metric tonnes of oil equivalent, expand offshore exploration activity and lift domestic oil and gas production.
Deep-sea and ultra-deep-sea drilling will get more than Rs 43,200 crore over the next five years, with per-well support of up to Rs 650 crore in deepwater and ultra-deepwater zones, where drilling a single well can cost Rs 950 crore to Rs 2,400 crore.
The scheme also sets aside Rs 10,000 crore for common infrastructure, Rs 28,534 crore for offshore data acquisition, and Rs 2,000 crore for oil and gas manufacturing and services zones.
Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw termed the scheme a ‘major game-changer’ that would help India substantially increase domestic production and cut down on foreign currency spent on crude oil imports.
Authorities expect the scheme to generate significant employment as offshore exploration activity expands across the country’s sedimentary basins in the years ahead.
The scheme’s data acquisition component is intended to help identify new sedimentary basins and improve the accuracy of reserve estimates before companies commit to expensive drilling programmes.
India currently imports a large share of its crude oil requirement, a dependence successive governments have sought to reduce through incentives for domestic exploration and production.
The petroleum ministry has previously run rounds of offshore acreage auctions under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy, aimed at drawing both public and private sector investment into exploration blocks.
Deep-sea and ultra-deep-sea drilling is considered technically demanding and capital-intensive, which is why the scheme sets aside dedicated funding specifically for wells in those zones.
Photo: Indian Navy, Wikimedia Commons, GODL-India
