Silchar, July 27: Experts believe Mizoram is sitting on potential oil and natural gas reserves.
Geology and mineral resources department director H. Lallenmawia told The Telegraph that the state's 21,087 square km area is considered suitable for exploration of natural oil and gas and the region lies on the proven commercial productivity basin of the two natural resources.
He added that the explorations activities by the different national and international agencies are spread around 58.9 per cent of Mizoram's total area.
Several agencies are active in exploration activities in Mizoram. These agencies are: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC), India Oil Company (IOC), Oil India Ltd (OIL), Suntera Resources Ltd, Shiv-Vani Oil Exploration, Nafto-gaz India Private Ltd, Reliance Energy Ltd, Reliance Natural Resources Ltd, Geopetrol International Inc. (French), and Oil & Natural Gas Ltd.
Lallenmawia said both the ONGC and IOC together were in the thick of extraction activity in around 5,340 square km area. Oil India Ltd (OIL), Suntera Resources Ltd and Shiv-Vani Oil Exploration cover 3,216 sq km, while the exploration activities of Naftogaz India Private Ltd, Reliance Energy Ltd, Reliance Natural Resources Ltd and Geopetrol International Inc. (French) are spread around 3,619 sq km. He said 255 sq km area had been earmarked for the Oil and Natural Gas Ltd.
"The exploration of natural oil and gas will certainly bring development in the state. The state will also soon become self reliant in domestic cooking gas," stated a paper recently presented by Lallenmawia in a seminar on oil and natural gas exploration in Aizawl.
The director said under the New Exploration Licensing Policy, the state would get 12.5 per cent of wellhead price on crude oil and 10 per cent of wellhead price on natural gas as royalty. The wellhead price is the wholesale price natural gas at their time of production.
Besides, as Lallenmawia said, the state will get 50 per cent share of the non-tax revenue against the production of oil and natural gas.
The non-tax revenue is the recurring income earned by the government from sources other than taxes.
