This presentation provides an overview of the historic producing provinces of India. The discussion will include examples of recent emerging plays together with some new play ideas for India’s offshore areas based on the results of a campaign of regional pre-stacked depth migrated (PSDM) seismic acquired in 2006-2007 by ION-GX Technology.

The history of oil and gas discoveries in India dates back to 1867 in the Assam Basin onshore and to the 1974 discovery of the giant Bombay (Mumbai) High field off the west coast. Earliest east coast discoveries were in 1979-1980 in the Krishna-Godavari (K-G) Basin near the coast and expanding to the offshore in the 1990s. Since then, gas was found along the east coast in a few fields in the Mahanadi Basin in 2003, but the big east coast gas reserves were discovered in the new offshore KG fields. These discoveries now total over 30 trillion cubic feet of gas and promise to provide a sorely needed source of fuel to meet India’s rapidly growing energ y consumpt ion. Mos t recent ly, di scover ies in the Cretaceous beneath the K-G Tertiary gas field, in the deep water of the Cauvery Basin, and in the Kutch Basin on the west coast, suggest additional new potential.

Two examples of new plays will be presented that have greatly increased India’s exploration

India: Surface geology and free air gravity—showing basins and oil and gas fields.

End_Page 23---------------

potential. The first, on the east coast, is the 85E Ridge. The 85E Ridge was previously thought to be a hot spot track and is now interpreted to be a continental fragment supporting a very large (50 by 100 kilometer) carbonate platform underlain by potential Jurassic through Cretaceous source rocks. The second example is a large deep (15 to 20 kilometer) coastal graben that likely contains Albian-Aptian source rocks in the active oil generation window beneath the Deccan Traps on the west coast.

Understanding the new play ideas relies on data from India’s conjugate margins in Africa and Antarctica, and on analogs to the formation of Indian continental margins that formed during the breakup of Gondwana.

End_of_Record - Last_Page 25---------------