Union Cabinet approves ₹84,084 crore for offshore exploration scheme ‘Samudra Manthan’
The Indian Union Cabinet has approved an ₹84,084 crore investment for the 'Samudra Manthan' offshore exploration scheme to boost domestic energy security. The plan focuses on deepwater drilling, data acquisition, and infrastructure development through 2031.
Why it matters
This is a major economic policy move aimed at reducing reliance on energy imports and revitalizing India's oil and gas sector.
Seeking to provide a fillip to India’s offshore exploration, the Union Cabinet on Friday (July 31, 2026) approved an outlay of ₹84,084 crore for the Union Petroleum Ministry’s National Offshore Exploration Scheme, titled ‘Samudra Manthan’.
The corpus is to be utilised until fiscal year 2030-31. The overall outlay is categorised into four key components. The most important of these relates to drilling 60 deepwater exploration wells for which the Cabinet has allocated ₹43,200 crore.
This is inclusive of the government of up to 50% of eligible drilling cost or ₹675 crore per well.
The other component relates to offshore data acquisition which carries an outlay of ₹28,534 crore.
Development of common offshore infrastructure hubs to facilitate commercialisation of discoveries which would be accounting for an outlay of ₹10,000 crore.
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