By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: Oil & Gas industry has kick-started economic activities/projects, numbering 8,363 with an anticipated cost of Rs 5.88 lakh crore which resumed progressively since 20.04.2020, following all pandemic related SOP.
These projects of Oil & Gas CPSEs & JV/Subsidiaries, inter-alia, include Refinery projects, Bio Refineries, E&P Projects, Marketing infrastructure projects, Pipelines, CGD projects, drilling/survey activities. The major 25 on-going projects of Oil & Gas CPSEs / JVs having an anticipated cost of Rs 1,67,248 crore and having incurred Rs 7861 crore worth of Capex leading to generation of 76,56,825 mandays, are given in Annexure.
Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Dharmendra Pradhan has been holding in-depth reviews of all on-going projects of Oil & Gas Companies, the recent one being on 24.08.2020. Under the Minister’s vision, Petroleum Industry has turned ‘crisis into opportunity’ and is striving to work on mission mode to generate employment and revive growth. Oil and Gas entities in their role as key actors are working on war footing and contributing to the green shoots of economic revival already visible through the backward and forward linkages of the oil and gas industry. Further, Oil and Gas sector is a key driver of economic growth and, therefore, these projects provide boost to the national economy and will trigger job creation, material movement.
Out of the total anticipated cost of these projects, approximately Rs 1, 20 lakh crore is targeted to be incurred as CAPEX in FY 2020-21. In FY 2020-21 (as on 15.08.2020), around Rs 26,576 crore worth of CAPEX has already been incurred. Further, in FY 2020-21 (as on 15.08.2020), around Rs 3,258 crore has been reported to be payout accrued on labour account during this period.
A total of around 33.8 crore man-days (direct as well as indirect) of employment is expected to be generated towards the completion of these 8363 projects, out of which more than 9.76 crore man-days of employment generation is targeted in FY 2020-21 itself. In FY 2020-21 (as on 15.08.2020), employment of more than 2.2 crore man-days have been generated through capital expenditure in the execution of these Oil & Gas projects.
Oil & Gas companies have reported that in FY 2020-21, they have planned an employment-oriented OPEX of around Rs 41,672 crore out of which Rs 11,296 crore has already been spent. This OPEX of Rs 41,672 crore has potential to generate around 14.5 crore man-days employment (direct/indirect). In FY 2020-21 (as on 15.08.2020), direct/indirect employment of around 4.4 crore man-days have been generated through OPEX.
In FY 2020-21, a total of around Rs 1.62 lakh crore (CAPEX and employment oriented OPEX) is targeted to be spent by Oil & Gas companies that has potential to generate employment of around 24 crore man-days (direct/indirect). This amount spent would create a virtuous cycle of investments and will certainly play a crucial rule in revival of Indian economy and will also provide employment opportunities to people of our country.
