New Delhi [India], November 13 (ANI): Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is expanding its exploration horizon beyond hydrocarbons, venturing into rare earth minerals and helium prospects as part of its long-term strategy to strengthen India’s energy security and support decarbonisation goals, a senior official said.
The company is aligning deeper domestic exploration with diversification into new resources critical for the energy transition, O. P. Sinha, Director (Exploration), ONGC Limited, told ANI on Thursday.
“The reality is that our energy consumption is rising exponentially, and domestic exploration must play a much bigger role in meeting this demand,” Sinha said in an exclusive interview with ANI.
“We are exploring new areas, including rare earth minerals, and have initiated discussions with the Geological Survey of India (GSI) to leverage their expertise. This will help India build resilience for the future,” he said on the sidelines of the Energy Security Conference 2025.
To ensure a secure, resilient, and self-reliant supply chain of critical minerals essential for the country’s economic development, national security, and transition to a clean energy future, the Government of India launched the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM) this year.
Sinha said ONGC has already detected traces of helium in some of its gas wells and is studying how to harness these valuable elements efficiently. “We are working on how to exploit or take advantage of the helium that we are finding in our existing oil and gas wells,” he explained.
These initiatives, he said, are part of ONGC’s broader vision to integrate traditional exploration with new-age resources vital for renewable technologies, electric mobility, and clean energy storage.
While expanding into critical minerals, ONGC remains focused on strengthening its domestic oil and gas exploration footprint. Sinha noted that the company is intensifying activity in deeper and frontier areas to address India’s growing demand.
“We need to be more aggressive — not only in activity but also in adopting new technologies and forming collaborations. This will help us cut costs, compress timelines, and deliver faster results,” he said.
He also acknowledged the government’s supportive policy environment that has enabled these advancements. “We are receiving very good policy support from the government, which is helping us progress in the right direction — particularly in exploration and decarbonisation efforts,” Sinha said.
In addition to new ventures, ONGC continues to expand its Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) programmes, which have successfully increased output from mature fields. “Our pilots in various reservoirs have given encouraging results. One of our programmes in Mehsana, started in the 1990s, delivered huge benefits in additional production. We are now expanding such initiatives to offshore fields as well,” he said.
On the offshore front, ONGC’s production from the Krishna-Godavari (KG) Basin has already commenced, with discoveries in the Mahanadi Basin currently being appraised. “Rig availability is not an issue — we have sufficient workload and are in the process of securing additional resources to enhance our offshore drilling,” Sinha noted.
By combining traditional exploration with diversification into rare earths and helium, ONGC aims to future-proof India’s energy sector. Sinha emphasised that these strategic initiatives demonstrate ONGC’s commitment to balancing energy security with sustainability.
“With technology, innovation, and collaboration, India can secure its energy future while supporting global low-carbon growth,” he concluded. (ANI)
Govt has completed 235 projects on critical minerals this year, nearly four-fold increase in six years: Geological Survey of India DDG
New Delhi [India], November 13 (ANI): The Government of India has completed 235 projects on critical minerals, a sharp rise from 65 projects completed in 2020–21, Siladitya Sengupta, Deputy Director General, PSS:P&M, Geological Survey of India, told ANI today.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Energy Security Conference 2025 in New Delhi, he said, “Critical minerals and rare earth minerals are very important for green energy transitions in the country. To become self-reliant in the mineral sector, exploration activities have increased manifold. In recent years, there has been a major thrust on critical and strategic minerals.”
He noted that amendments to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act (MMDR Act), 1957 — including the 2015 move that made e-auctions mandatory for granting mineral concessions — have increased transparency and accelerated the pace of exploration.
To speed up exploration in the country, the Geological Survey of India is using a two-pronged approach: facilitating the exploration ecosystem and accelerating GSI’s own exploration programmes.
Discussing the importance of deep-seated and concealed deposits, Sengupta said exploration of such deposits has become crucial as easily accessible, near-surface, high-grade deposits are largely exhausted. There are plans to shift from traditional surface-evidence-based exploration to conceptual model-based exploration, he added.
He also noted that the GSI has handed over 35 geological memorandum blocks to the Ministry of Mines under the OAMDR Act 2002 (amended in 2023).
India has vast potential in rare earth minerals, Sengupta said, emphasising that the country must focus on building strong processing capabilities to harness this potential effectively. (ANI)
817 words, 4 minutes read time.
About The Author
