Oil and Gas Industry in Rajasthan and State economy

The recent discovery of oil & gas reserves in Rajasthan provides a significant business opportunity to establish a number of upstream and downstream businesses in the state. The Thar desert in its underbelly contains millions of tonnes of oil and natural gas and in a few years from now, the desert region is expected to witness a boom with a lot of economic activities taking place. At a time when every country is looking for various sources of energy, the Thar desert in western Rajasthan is emerging as the next energy hub of country. The region has rich deposits of oil, gas, lignite coal, coal bed methane and to top it all, solar and wind energy. Many companies are in queue for establishing their energy projects in the region and after lignite-based power projects and wind energy, a number of solar power units would dot the desert landscape. With new discoveries, the hydrocarbon would yield good revenue to the state. Gehlot announced levying of surface rent on oil companies which have been given lease for oil and gas exploration.

The successful growth of the Indian economy is largely dependent on a stable supply of hydrocarbons and the state has taken a lead in this direction. The 600-km long insulated pipeline from the state to Gujarat is set to become the lifeline of the hydrocarbon sector with an investment of $900 million. The pipeline, a continuous insulated structure, a first of its kind in the country and the longest in the world, is the key to the development of the hydrocarbon sector in the districts of Barmer and Jalore. The pipeline therefore would not only help the state maintain its growth momentum in the hydrocarbon sector but by helping the state market its own crude would also aid in reducing the mounting oil import bills to the tune of $20 billion a year for the country.

Now days exploration activity in Rajasthan is limited to the following four blocks:
Basin ****************** Allotted to
Barmer-Sanchore **** Cairn Energy
Bikaner-Nagaur **** Essar Oil -Polish Oil & Gas Co.
Shahgarh **** Phoenix Overseas consortium
Bangewala area **** Oil India-PDVSA (Venezuela)