Samudra Manthan: The ₹84,084-Crore Mission to Explore India's Deep Waters

On 31 July 2026, the Union Cabinet approved "Samudra Manthan", the National Offshore Exploration Scheme: a Central Sector Scheme of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas with a Phase-I outlay of ₹84,084 crore, for implementation up to FY 2030-31. It is, in the Ministry's own description, "India's most ambitious offshore exploration mission to date": sixty deepwater and ultra-deepwater wells, a fresh basin-wide seismic dataset, and shared infrastructure designed to pull discoveries that have been lying idle for want of pipelines and platforms into commercial production.[1][2]

The name, the churning of the ocean from the Puranas, is the Prime Minister's own framing. The scheme, as the official release puts it, "translates the Prime Minister's vision, articulated from the Red Fort on Independence Day 2025, of a modern-day Samudra Manthan to unlock India's vast offshore energy potential." The numbers explain the urgency: India is the world's third-largest consumer of crude oil, with an annual import bill of nearly USD 144 billion, or about ₹13 lakh crore.[1][8]

The scheme at a glance

• What it is. "Samudra Manthan", the National Offshore Exploration Scheme: a Central Sector Scheme of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, approved by the Union Cabinet on 31 July 2026.[1][3]
• Phase-I outlay. ₹84,084 crore, for implementation up to 31 March 2031.[1]
• Four components. Seismic data acquisition (₹28,534 crore); drilling of 60 deepwater and ultra-deepwater wells (₹43,200 crore); common offshore infrastructure hubs (₹10,000 crore); and an Oil and Gas Manufacturing and Services Zone (₹2,000 crore), with ₹350 crore for monitoring and support activities.[1][2]
• The risk-sharing promise. Government support of up to 50 per cent of the eligible drilling cost, or ₹675 crore per well, whichever is lower, open to both public and private exploration and production operators.[1][2]
• The targets, subject to exploration success. Over 600 MMTOE (Million Metric Tonnes of Oil Equivalent) of reserve accretion; resource base expanded from 1.6 billion to 2.2 billion tonnes of oil equivalent; annual domestic production from around 62 MMTOE to 80 MMTOE; and crude import savings of nearly ₹1 lakh crore a year.[1][2]

Why India is drilling its own seabed

Three structural facts define the problem the scheme is meant to solve.

The import bill

India is the world's third-largest consumer of crude oil, importing nearly USD 144 billion (about ₹13 lakh crore) of it every year. The West Asia disruption of early 2026 sharpened that argument inside Parliament. "Before this crisis, approximately 45 per cent of India's crude imports transited the Hormuz route," the Petroleum Minister told the Lok Sabha in March 2026. India responded by lifting non-Hormuz sourcing from 55 per cent to around 70 per cent of crude imports, and it now buys crude from 40 countries, a diversification the Minister described as "built through sustained policy over successive years." But diversification is a workaround. Domestic production is the structural answer.[7]

The decline problem

Existing oil and gas fields "witness a natural production decline of around 6-7 per cent every year." To see why that matters, do the arithmetic on a single field: one producing 100 barrels a day today would be down to roughly 93 this time next year, with nothing at all going wrong. New discoveries are needed simply to hold production flat, before they can add to it.[1][2]

The cost problem

A single deepwater exploratory well costs approximately USD 125-150 million, and the journey from the award of a block to first commercial production typically takes 5-10 years. High cost, long gestation and uncertain geology: that combination is why frontier waters get under-explored when the private sector carries the risk alone. The scheme's answer is to share it.[1][2]

What the money buys

"Good exploration begins with good data."

Data first: ₹28,534 crore. Seismic surveys send sound waves into the Earth to map rock layers below the seabed, think of it as an ultrasound for the ocean floor. Limited offshore seismic coverage had restricted the identification of drill-ready prospects, so the scheme funds large-scale 2D surveys for basin-wide coverage (₹12,000 crore), 3D acquisition and other techniques (₹12,534 crore), and the re-processing of old National Data Repository data with modern tools and Artificial Intelligence (₹4,000 crore).[1][2]

Sixty deepwater wells: ₹43,200 crore. The largest single line item, and the heart of the scheme. For every well, the Government covers up to 50 per cent of the eligible drilling cost, capped at ₹675 crore per well, whichever is lower. Consider what that changes: a deepwater well that comes up dry returns nothing at all, and the entire spend is written off. Halving that exposure is what makes a frontier drilling programme bankable for operators, and the scheme is open to both public and private exploration and production companies.[1][2]

Shared infrastructure: ₹10,000 crore. Many offshore discoveries in India remain unproduced not because there is no oil, but because building the platforms and pipelines to evacuate it is too expensive for a single field. The backgrounder names the Mahanadi and Kutch basins as the clearest examples. A small, isolated discovery that cannot justify its own platform becomes commercial the moment several fields share the same production and evacuation facilities, which is exactly what this component funds: common infrastructure that "turn[s] idle finds into producing fields."[2]

Manufacturing capability: ₹2,000 crore. Low domestic manufacturing inflates exploration costs, adds import dependence, and sends foreign exchange out of the country for equipment and services. An integrated Oil and Gas Manufacturing and Services Zone will build domestic capabilities in manufacturing, repair, warehousing, engineering and services, advancing Make in India inside the oilfield supply chain itself. A further ₹350 crore covers monitoring, digital programme management, capacity building and international outreach.[1][2]

Where the frontier lies

India's eastern and western offshore basins extend to water depths of up to 3,000 metres and are estimated to hold over 5,600 MMTOE of hydrocarbon potential. The future potential, as the Government describes it, lies "largely in deepwater and ultra-deepwater basins such as Krishna-Godavari, Cauvery, Mahanadi and the Andaman region." Recent finds in the Cauvery, Mahanadi and Andaman basins have reinforced that promise.[1][2]

The first campaign is already running. On 25 July 2026, drilling began on the first appraisal well in the Mahanadi Offshore Basin, the MN-DWN18-1-HD, the first of four planned deepwater wells in the programme. An appraisal well is drilled after a discovery has been made, to establish its size and commercial value; "spudding" is the technical term for the start of drilling a new well. The programme will deploy world-class deepwater drilling technology to systematically evaluate one of India's most prospective basins.[2]

The decade of reform the mission stands on

Samudra Manthan "marks the transition from policy reform to mission-mode implementation": the funding layer that sits on top of reforms built over roughly a decade.[2]

• Acreage opened up. "More than 99 per cent of the earlier 'No-Go' areas have been removed," making over one million square kilometres of the Exclusive Economic Zone (the sea area where India holds rights over natural resources) available for exploration.[1][2]
• Contracts simplified. In 2016, India moved from Production Sharing Contracts to Revenue Sharing Contracts. The difference in plain terms: under PSC, profits were shared between Government and contractor after recovery of costs; under RSC, "the contractor bears all exploration risks, production and development costs in return for its stipulated share of revenue", a simpler, more transparent framework with less administrative intervention.[2]
• Licensing modernised. The Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP), 2016, and its Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP) replaced the old nomination-based approach. Nearly 81 per cent of active exploration acreage has been awarded since 2014; under OALP, 172 blocks covering nearly 3.8 lakh square kilometres have been awarded, with committed investments exceeding USD 4.3 billion.[2][4]
• Law and rules updated. The Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Amendment Act, 2025 provides contractual stability, recognises integrated petroleum operations, and strengthens dispute resolution, with penalties raised to ₹25 lakh, and up to ₹10 lakh per day for a continuing violation. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules, 2025 operationalise the changes. The composition and mandate of the Empowered Committee of Secretaries were standardised across contract regimes, and the performance parameters of ONGC and Oil India were reoriented towards exploration.[2][5]
• The pipeline is active. OALP Round X, launched in April 2025, offers 25 blocks covering 1,91,986 square kilometres, the largest acreage offered in a single round under the HELP regime.[2][6] In FY 2025-26 alone, around 674 wells were drilled, five new discoveries were made, and seven discoveries were monetised.[2]

What has to go right

• The caveat comes first. Every target in the scheme is preceded by the phrase "subject to exploration success." Drilling finds oil and gas only sometimes; the scheme is designed to make the search worth attempting, not to guarantee outcomes.[1]
• The sequence is long. Data, then drilling, then infrastructure, then production: each link takes years, and even a confirmed discovery typically needs 5-10 years to reach first commercial output. Phase-I runs to FY 2030-31.[1][2]
• The expected payoff is gradual. Incremental production of 10-15 MMTOE is expected, with a peak potential of 20 MMTOE, a structural bet, not a quick fix.[2]
• The foundations exist. India has built what the Government calls "one of the world's most comprehensive geoscientific databases" through Mission Anveshan, the National Seismic Programme, the Extended Continental Shelf Survey, the National Data Repository and the Hydrocarbon Resource Assessment Study.[2]

Where things stand

• Approved on 31 July 2026 with a Phase-I outlay of ₹84,084 crore, for implementation up to FY 2030-31.[1]
• The first deepwater campaign is underway: the MN-DWN18-1-HD appraisal well in the Mahanadi Offshore Basin is the first of four planned wells, spudded on 25 July 2026.[2]
• Supporting reforms are already in force (the ORD Amendment Act, 2025 and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules, 2025), and OALP Round X, the largest single offering under HELP, is in the market.[4][5][6]
• The headline targets, production from around 62 to 80 MMTOE and import savings of nearly ₹1 lakh crore a year, remain contingent on exploration success.[1][2]

Quick answers

• What is Samudra Manthan? The National Offshore Exploration Scheme: a Central Sector Scheme of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, approved by the Union Cabinet on 31 July 2026 to accelerate offshore oil and gas exploration and production.[1][3]
• How much is the outlay and for how long? ₹84,084 crore for Phase-I, up to FY 2030-31: ₹28,534 crore for seismic data, ₹43,200 crore for drilling 60 deepwater wells, ₹10,000 crore for shared infrastructure, ₹2,000 crore for a manufacturing and services zone, and ₹350 crore for monitoring and support.[1]
• Why is India exploring deepwater basins? Deepwater and ultra-deepwater areas off India's coasts hold over 5,600 MMTOE of estimated hydrocarbon potential, and domestic production is falling behind demand: India imports nearly USD 144 billion of crude every year.[2]
• How does the 50 per cent support work? For each of the 60 wells, the Government covers up to 50 per cent of the eligible drilling cost, capped at ₹675 crore per well, whichever is lower, and the scheme is open to public and private operators alike.[1][2]
• What are the production targets? Annual domestic production is targeted to rise from around 62 MMTOE to 80 MMTOE, subject to exploration success, with additional output cutting crude imports by nearly ₹1 lakh crore a year.[1][2]
• Where is drilling happening right now? In the Mahanadi Offshore Basin, where the first of four planned deepwater wells, MN-DWN18-1-HD, began drilling on 25 July 2026.[2]

Sources

1. PIB: Cabinet approves 'Samudra Manthan', National Offshore Exploration Scheme with an outlay of ₹84,084 crore. Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, 1 August 2026. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2292841
2. PIB Backgrounder: Samudra Manthan, National Offshore Exploration Scheme: Churning the Ocean for Energy. PIB Research, 3 August 2026. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2293934
3. PMIndia: Cabinet approves 'Samudra Manthan' (National Offshore Exploration Scheme) with an outlay of Rs.84,084 crore. 31 July 2026. https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/news_updates/cabinet-approves-samudra-manthan-national-offshore-exploration-scheme-with-an-outlay-of-rs-84084-crore/
4. PIB: HELP Reforms Modernise India's Upstream Sector. Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (Lok Sabha reply), 11 December 2025. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2202520
5. PIB: Oilfield (Regulatory and Development) Amendment Bill passed in Lok Sabha. Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, 12 March 2025. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2111045
6. PIB: Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP). Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, 11 August 2025. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2155112
7. PIB: Statement by Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas in Parliament on Measures Taken to Address Global Energy Supply Disruptions Arising from the Conflict in West Asia. 12 March 2026. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2239021
8. PMIndia: PM's address from the ramparts of Red Fort on the occasion of 79th Independence Day. 15 August 2025. https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/news_updates/pms-address-from-the-ramparts-of-red-fort-on-the-occasion-of-79th-independence-day/