Samudra Manthan: India's ₹84,084-Crore Mission to Find Oil and Gas Under the Sea
India is pushing its search for oil and natural gas into deeper waters. The focus is on the Mahanadi basin off Odisha, the Andaman-Nicobar region, and deeper parts of the Krishna-Godavari and Cauvery basins, along with Kutch and Mumbai Offshore on the west coast.
On 31 July 2026, the Union Cabinet approved Samudra Manthan, the National Offshore Exploration Scheme. It is a central sector scheme under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas with an outlay of ₹84,084 crore up to 2030-31.
The money is split as: ₹28,534 crore for collecting and studying seismic data (sound-wave images of rocks under the seabed), ₹43,200 crore for 60 deepwater and ultra-deepwater wells, ₹10,000 crore for common offshore infrastructure, ₹2,000 crore for oil and gas manufacturing and services zones, and ₹350 crore for monitoring. The government will pay up to 50% of eligible drilling cost, up to ₹675 crore per well.
The scheme aims to add more than 600 million tonnes of oil equivalent (MMTOE) to reserves (if exploration succeeds), raise the resource base from 1.6 to 2.2 billion tonnes of oil equivalent, and lift annual oil and gas output from about 62 to 80 MMTOE. This could cut crude imports by nearly ₹1 lakh crore a year.
In July 2026, drilling started on the first of four planned appraisal wells in the Mahanadi Offshore Basin. In the Andaman basin, a well found signs of an "active petroleum system", but commercial reserves are not yet proven.
The background: India imports crude worth about $144 billion (about ₹13 lakh crore) a year, and existing fields decline by about 6 to 7% every year. Earlier, in 2022, nearly 99% of offshore "No-Go" areas were opened, releasing over 1 million sq km of India's Exclusive Economic Zone for exploration.
Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) and Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP)
The Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) is the set of rules under which the Government of India gives companies the right to search for and produce oil and gas. It was approved by the Union Cabinet on 10 March 2016. Its most important tool is the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP), under which companies can pick the areas they want to explore, instead of waiting for the government to choose areas for them. HELP also changed how the government earns money from oil and gas: from sharing "profit" to sharing "revenue".
Samudra Manthan builds directly on HELP and OALP. Blocks in Mahanadi, Andaman, Krishna-Godavari and Kutch were awarded through OALP rounds, and the new scheme now uses public money for seismic surveys, deepwater drilling and shared infrastructure, to lower the very risks that have kept companies away from these blocks.
Sedimentary Basins of India: Categories and Hydrocarbon Potential
A sedimentary basin is a large, low-lying area of the Earth's crust where layers of sand, mud and dead plant and animal matter have piled up over millions of years and turned into rock. Oil and natural gas are found only in such basins. India has 26 sedimentary basins, covering about 3.36 million sq km on land and under the sea. The government groups them into categories based on how much we already know about their oil and gas.
Samudra Manthan targets exactly these basins. Mahanadi and Andaman-Nicobar are Category II basins where oil or gas has been found but not yet produced, so they need appraisal wells. Krishna-Godavari and Cauvery are Category I basins being pushed into deeper water. The scheme's goal is to move these basins from "potential" to "reserves" and finally to "production".
- Samudra Manthan (National Offshore Exploration Scheme): approved 31 July 2026; outlay ₹84,084 crore up to 2030-31; central sector scheme
- Components: ₹28,534 crore seismic; ₹43,200 crore for 60 deepwater/ultra-deepwater wells; ₹10,000 crore common infrastructure; ₹2,000 crore manufacturing and services zones; ₹350 crore monitoring
- Drilling support: up to 50% of eligible cost, capped at ₹675 crore per well
- Targets: add 600+ MMTOE of reserves; resource base from 1.6 to 2.2 billion tonnes of oil equivalent; output from about 62 to 80 MMTOE a year
- Offshore hydrocarbon potential: more than 5,600 MMTOE, in water up to 3,000 m deep
- About 99% of offshore "No-Go" areas opened in 2022, over 1 million sq km of the EEZ
- India's crude import bill: about $144 billion (about ₹13 lakh crore) a year; fields decline about 6 to 7% a year