The Union Cabinet’s approval of the Rs 84,084 crore ‘Samudra Manthan’ National Offshore Exploration Scheme on Thursday, July 31, 2026, opens a substantial new investment pipeline in India’s upstream energy sector, running through FY2030-31 under the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas.

For companies and investors tracking India’s energy sector, the scheme’s scale is notable: more than Rs 43,200 crore is earmarked for deep-sea and ultra-deep-sea drilling alone over the next five years, with per-well government support of up to Rs 650 crore in deepwater and ultra-deepwater zones where a single well can cost between Rs 950 crore and Rs 2,400 crore to drill.

The scheme also allocates Rs 10,000 crore to common infrastructure development and Rs 28,534 crore to offshore data acquisition, funding that industry watchers say could lower the entry barrier for private exploration and services firms by de-risking early-stage surveys.

A further Rs 2,000 crore is set aside for oil and gas manufacturing and services zones, a signal that the government wants to build out a domestic supply chain around exploration rather than rely solely on imported equipment and services.

Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw called the scheme a ‘major game-changer,’ framing it as a way to substantially lift domestic production and cut the foreign currency outflow tied to crude oil imports — a framing aimed as much at investors as at the general public.

With reserve accretion targeted at more than 600 million metric tonnes of oil equivalent and large-scale employment generation cited as a goal, the scheme sets up a multi-year opportunity for oilfield services companies, equipment makers and offshore engineering firms operating in or entering the Indian market.

Deep-sea and ultra-deep-sea drilling is considered technically demanding and capital-intensive, which is why the scheme sets aside dedicated funding specifically for wells in those zones.

The scheme’s data acquisition component is intended to help identify new sedimentary basins and improve the accuracy of reserve estimates before companies commit to expensive drilling programmes.

Photo: Indian Navy, Wikimedia Commons, GODL-India