Puri leads regulatory, policy reforms meet for India’s upstream sector
Under the leadership of Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) organised a series of high-level upstream-focused engagements in Mumbai on Monday, bringing together a wide spectrum of stakeholders to deliberate on financing, regulatory reforms and upcoming exploration bid rounds.
The day-long programme saw participation from domestic and international upstream operators, exploration and production (E&P) service providers, global consulting firms, public and private sector financial institutions, insurers, academia and industry experts, reflecting growing interest in India’s upstream reform agenda and investment potential. Addressing the gathering virtually, Puri said recent legislative, regulatory and policy reforms marked a landmark transformation of India’s upstream sector.
He noted that these reforms, supported by data-led exploration initiatives, had unlocked significant investment opportunities, particularly in offshore and frontier areas, and reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to providing a stable, transparent and globally competitive framework for investors. The engagements included a workshop on financing India’s E&P growth, a
session on the amended Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Act along with revised Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules and the Model Revenue Sharing Contract (MRSC), and a bid promotion event for forthcoming upstream bid rounds. Senior officials from MoPNG and the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) interacted extensively with participants across sessions.
The workshop on “Financing India’s E&P Growth” examined whether India’s financing ecosystem is prepared to support the scale and continuity of investment envisaged under the expanded exploration and production programme, including initiatives such as Samudra Manthan. Global consulting firms including S&P Global, Deloitte, A.T. Kearney and EY shared international perspectives on upstream financing models, risk allocation and capital mobilisation.
In his remarks, MoPNG Secretary Neeraj Mittal emphasised that timely availability of capital would be critical to upstream execution and called for sustained engagement between policymakers, operators and financiers to strengthen financing frameworks, according to a Press release.
