Lok Sabha Nod For Oilfield Amendment Bill

New Delhi: The Lok Sabha has passed the Oilfield (Regulatory and Development) Amendment Bill, 2024 which aims to reform the legal framework to attract more investments for the exploration and production of oil and gas in the country. The Bill was earlier passed by the Rajya Sabha on December 3, 2024.

Over the last decade, the government has brought several reforms including a landmark shift from ‘production sharing’ regime to ‘revenue sharing’ regime for awarding contracts, simplified processes and reduced regulatory burden to promote exploration and production of oil and gas in India. Besides, the release of previously ‘No-Go’ areas for new exploration, deregulation of crude as well as marketing and pricing freedom for natural gas were other steps taken in this regard.

“As a crucial outcome of these major reforms, more than 76 per cent of the active acreage under oil and gas exploration in India today has been awarded after 2014,” according to an official statement.

While introducing the amendment Bill, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri stated that the present regime, focusing mainly on licensing, regulatory control and collection of royalties, needed reorientation to promote Ease of Doing Business and collaboration between the Government and the Contractors.