Guwahati: In what may see an investment of Rs. 1.30 lakh crore over the next 15 years in the hydrocarbon sectors of Northeast, union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday released the Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 for Northeast India.
Pointing out that the region has enormous potential in the oil and gas sector, Pradhan said that his ministry aims at to double the production of oil and natural gas in the region.
While releasing the vision documents in Hotel Radisson Blue Pradhan said, “Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we decided to prepare a separate vision document for the North East to take the region forward. The entire region has huge potential and requires specific attention and investment for its development.”
The minister said, “In order to achieve this ambitious target, Rs 1,30,000 crore investment will be made by different players in the next 15 years in North East. This also implies every year Rs 8,00010,000 crore investment will be made and most will come to Assam.”
The vision document which was released two months before Assam going to elections is said to have been a focused and consultative exercise to develop a common and shared aspiration for benefiting people of the north east region. With involvement and inputs of various stakeholders, industry players and state governments, the Vision document not only includes the ambition for the region but also an actionable roadmap, the minister said.
Informing that to increase the output, new technologies will be introduced in association with private players and the refineries will be upgraded to produce BS VI fuel, Pradhan said, “We are talking to Schlumberger for exploration. We will get advanced technologies from the tieup and this will help in increasing the output.”
He also said that the distribution network, including setting up of an additional 7,000 km pipelines, will be strengthened in the region during the period.
He said that of the Rs 1,30,000 crore investment, Rs 80,000 crore will be required for upstream activities of existing and new oil and gas blocks for exploration.
An amount of Rs 20,000 crore has been earmarked for midstream actions, including setting up of four new natural gas pipelines, five new POL product pipelines and three new LPG pipelines.
The vision document also envisages plan for providing access to clean fuel (LPG, PNG) to all households at affordable prices, to promote the production of bio fuel and to develop service provider hubs.
