New Delhi [India], March 12 (ANI): In a major development in Parliament, the Lok Sabha passed the Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Amendment Bill 2024 on Wednesday.

The Bill is set to amend the Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Act, 1948 which regulates the exploration and extraction of natural gas and petroleum.

Expressing his happiness over the passing of the bill in the lower house, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri in a social media post X wrote, 'Historic day in India's quest towards energy security and energy self-sufficiency under the dynamic and firm leadership of PM Narendra Modi. Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Amendment Bill 2024 successfully passed in Lok Sabha today.'

He added that these amendments made in the existing legislation will further strengthen and propel India's energy sector and ensure policy stability, international arbitration, extended lease periods etc.

'The present global energy scenario and the hydrocarbon landscape has dramatically changed. Hence, there was a need to amend the Act to reflect current realities, national priorities, promote Ease of Doing Business (EoDB), decriminalize provisions, and align India's Exploration and Production (E&P) framework with practices of competing geographies. By virtue of the fact that we are going to rely on conventional energy for some time we need to step up our exploration and production activities,' he wrote in the post.

The Union Minister further added that successful passage of the bill will be a constructive and positive step in this direction.

'Utilisation of energy is a reasonably good indicator of economic performance. Today we are consuming 5.5 million Barrels of crude oil in a day. Just three and a half years ago this consumption was 5.0 million Barrels. If we continue to grow at the rate at which we are, we will go upto 6.5-7.0 million Barrels Per Day. India's transformation to being #ViksitBharat will require a large amount of energy in all forms. Steps have been taken to enhance India's energy exploration and production,' he added.

He further added in the post, 'Earlier one million sqkm area of our sedimentary basin used to be a 'No Go' area. As a result, our import dependence was on a rise. We opened up that one million sqkm out of the 3.5 million sqkm of sedimentary basin to encourage and enhance domestic crude production. This has sent positive signals to prospective investors. Today, 76% of all the prospecting and exploration is being done in these areas which have now been opened up.'

The Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Act, 1948 provides for a mining lease. The lease provides for various activities such as exploration, prospecting, production, making merchantable, and disposal of mineral oils.

The Bill replaces the mining lease with a petroleum lease, which also covers similar set of activities. Existing mining leases granted under the Act will continue to be valid. The Act empowers the central government to make Rules on several matters such as regulation of the grant of leases, and terms and conditions of leases including the minimum and the maximum area and the period of lease among others.

The Act provides that violation of Rules will be punishable with imprisonment up to six months, a fine of Rs 1,000, or both. The Bill instead provides that the above offence will be punishable with a penalty of Rs 25 lakh.

The central government will appoint an officer of the rank of Joint Secretary or above for adjudication of penalties. (ANI)