Samudra Manthan: India prepares year-wise drilling, rig deployment roadmap

The Oil Ministry is working on a year-wise execution road map for drilling, seismic surveys and rig deployment under its ambitious $8.8 billion Samudra Manthan, or the National Offshore Exploration Scheme.

Leveraging the funding boost, the Ministry eyes higher oil and gas production in the Deep and Ultra Deep waters.

Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri met top ministry officials and PSU executives earlier this week to review the action taken on the decisions from the two recent brainstorming sessions at Gurugram (Haryana) and Duliajan (Assam) . 

Puri said that the progress in the implementation of the Samudra Manthan Scheme was discussed.

The Ministry has decided to pursue a year-wise roadmap, which is now being finalised to drive accelerated drilling, seismic surveys and rig deployment across the KG, Mahanadi, Andaman and Cauvery basins, the Minister said.

State-run exploration and production majores—ONGC and Oil India (OIL)—will be the driving force behind the scheme, Puri added.

Backing this effort is a dedicated ONGC-led JV for drillship capacity, addressing a key infrastructure bottleneck through shared investment and long-term chartering, he noted.

Motilal Oswal Financial Services in a recent report noted that ONGC shall be playing a major role in Samudra Manthan.

“ONGC expects oil prices to settle at $75 per barrel in the long run. That will help ONGC to undertake exploration activities (including deep water exploration) which were not viable financially at $60-65,” the brokerage explained.

With ₹84,000 crore fund (Phase-1 valid till FY31) from the government, the opportunity seems very lucrative for ONGC. Each deep water will cost around ₹1,000 crore. Support will be coming from the government, but the quantum and timelines are still not disclosed. Some global players might come, it added.

The scheme provides funds for offshore seismic data acquisition especially in erstwhile No-Go zones, which is a key issue hampering commercial exploitation of oil and gas reserves in these areas due to lack of good prospectivity data. 

Samudra Manthan provides support for drilling deepwater/ ultra-deepwater wells where the domestic Upstream sector has limited experience and technical expertise and exploitation of the same remains highly capital intensive and risky. 

It aims to add incremental annual production of 10-15 million tonnes of oil equivalent (MTOE) that can potentially reduce India’s high import dependence on crude oil and natural gas.

The scheme will deploy a comprehensive set of interventions across the offshore exploration value chain including large-scale acquisition, processing and interpretation of high-quality seismic data.

It will also include accelerated deepwater and ultra-deepwater exploratory drilling, scientific drilling in frontier basins, development of common offshore production and evacuation infrastructure, and establishment of an integrated Oil & Gas Manufacturing and Services Zone. 

Samudra Manthan also includes dedicated provisions for digital programme management, capacity building, technology adoption, stakeholder engagement and international outreach, creating an integrated ecosystem to accelerate offshore exploration and production in the country.

Published on August 25, 2026