India plans to drill around 600 offshore exploration wells over the next four years, including 60 deepwater wells, as part of an intensified drive to boost domestic oil and gas exploration, according to Vinod Seshan, Joint Secretary for Exploration at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Speaking at the 6th ET Energy Leadership Summit 2026, Seshan said the government is combining new geoscientific data, regulatory reforms and public risk-sharing to make exploration more attractive and reduce risks for operators.
The planned drilling program under the Samudra Manthan scheme is expected to create significant demand for drilling contractors, technology providers, equipment manufacturers and oilfield service companies. Seshan said oil and gas could still account for around 30-35 percent of India’s energy mix by 2047, making domestic exploration important for long-term energy security despite the expansion of renewable energy.
The government has already invested about $500 million in data acquisition and plans to invest another $3.5 billion through the program and operator participation. It also intends to provide support of up to ?675 crore per well for frontier exploration, helping reduce the financial risks associated with deepwater drilling.
Seshan said India’s exploration strategy rests on three pillars—“terms, rocks and tools”—covering contractual reforms, geological data and advanced technologies. The government has opened around one million square kilometers of previously restricted offshore acreage and expanded 2D and 3D seismic surveys to improve the identification of prospective areas.
He also highlighted the need to improve India’s reserve replacement ratio, saying the country currently replaces about 0.8-0.9 units of reserves for every unit extracted. Better geological intelligence, advanced drilling technologies, artificial intelligence-based analysis and greater industry collaboration will be needed to improve the ratio.
Seshan said the success of the Samudra Manthan initiative would ultimately depend on converting improved data, regulatory reforms and public risk-sharing into sustained exploration and new discoveries capable of narrowing the gap between domestic production and energy demand.
