New Delhi: India envisages an investment of over Rs 1,70,000 crore in the 10th Plan for the development of its oil and gas sector, which plays a major role in increasing the country's annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

"These investments are indicative of the massive opportunities in the petroleum sector of India" and the government welcomes them as such, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Ram Naik said in his inaugural address at the Petrotech 2003, an international petroleum conference and exhibition, on January 9.

He said that against a backdrop of the ever-widening supply-demand gap, which stands at 70 per cent today, boosting the domestic oil and natural gas production, increasing refining and pipeline capacities and expanding the marketing infrastructure was urgently needed to meet the increasing energy demand to help sustain the momentum of the country's economic growth.

Appreciating the recent gas discovery by the private sector oil major Reliance Industries Limited in the Krishna-Godavari basin, Naik said such discoveries were a measure of success of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) of the government.

He said India's participation in oil equity abroad, especially ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Commission) Videsh Limited's $ 740 million Sudan deal, would boost the country's efforts to achieve energy security.

"In fact, in the first week of April, government shall announce the fourth round of NELP and second round of coal bed methane blocks," he said.

An estimated investment of $ 4.3 billion has been charted out in 70 blocks under the earlier three rounds of NELP, Naik said, adding an initial investment of $ 80 million has been made in the development of eight blocks having a potential of over 300 billion cubic metres of gas.

PTI