Union petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar with petroleum secretary M.S. Srinivasan (left) in New Delhi on Saturday. Picture by Ramakant Kushwaha

New Delhi, Jan. 7: A day-long session here on the hydrocarbon sector mooted the idea to create a conducive environment for service providers in the petroleum industry to help them set up shop in the country.

Petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, who chaired the meeting, told reporters that the government is considering setting up exclusive petroleum economic zones.

?We have received interesting suggestions for the setting up of petroleum economic zones where service providers from all over the world would be invited to set up shop,? Aiyar said.

The national working committee on research and development in the hydrocarbon sector proposed in one of its papers submitted at the session that special economic zones exclusive for the petroleum sector be created in the country where foreign experts could set up their shops.

The general consensus of the discussion was that service providers, particularly those engaged in drilling services and analysing geological data, were in short supply in the world. Therefore, tax concessions as provided to information technology parks in the country could also be provided to these petroleum economic zones to help attract them to India. It was argued that this could enable the country to emerge as a hub for hydrocarbon expertise.

The minister said the petroleum economic zones would operate on lines of special economic zones where service providers for upstream exploration and production and downstream refining technology would be given certain concessions to provide the world specialised services. ?These will contribute not only to domestic exploration and production, India can also become a global sourcing hub like one in China,? he said.