Mandir Hasoud (Chhatisgarh): Alleging that the previous governments were responsible for the high oil import bill, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Ram Naik on July 18 said the government was vigorously working towards making the country self-sufficient in production of crude oil.

After attaining self-sufficiency in refining capacity, the government was working towards achieving it in crude oil production and as a part of that 70 blocks have been awarded under the New Exploration Licence Policy (NELP), he said at a function at Mandir Hasoud in Raipur district.

These 70 blocks had been given to public sector undertakings (PSUs) like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Oil India, Reliance and Essar Industries and some other overseas private companies and 24 more blocks have been offered for which bids will be received by September 30, he said.

Blaming the previous governments at the Centre for the high oil import bill which currently stood at Rs 84,000 crore, Naik said during the last 10 years only 22 blocks were given for survey, which was not sufficient and prevented India from attaining self-sufficiency.

Awarding only 22 blocks during the last 10 years resulted in increasing the oil import bill to Rs 84,000 as currently 69 per cent of crude oil are being imported, Naik said.

Contracts have also been awarded for 8 blocks of coal-bed methane and with nine new blocks being approved, natural gas would be tapped from a total of 17 blocks including Sonhat block, which lies partly in Madhya Pradesh with major portion in Chhattisgarh, the minister added.

PTI