Why bother.

"Oil and Natural Gas Corporation or ONGC is expected to spend about $18-20 billion for hiring deep-water drilling rigs for what could become its largest-ever oil exploration program." "Last month, ONGC floated a tender for these rigs as it looks to accelerate hydrocarbon exploration under the government's Samudra Manthan mission." TOI. It may seem a lot of money but rent for, "Basic offshore oil rigs like jack-ups typically start from $200,000 to $400,000 per day on average for exploratory wells, whereas the most sophisticated deepwater rigs like drillships could cost around $500,000 to $800,000 on a daily basis." Offshore drilling rigs start at $500 million to buy and drillships cost $1 billion to manufacture, so will cost even more. SOSS. Once the rig is in position, drilling may take 15 days to 12 months (Cosco) but there is no guarantee of finding oil at first drilling. "Offshore deep water frontier: 5-15% commercial discovery rate." Offshore established deep water provinces over 20% discovery rate. Quora. Offshore drilling rigs are manufactured abroad (Marine Insight) and will need to be transported to India, although Drillmec has a joint venture with KMOC Kakinada Marine and Offshore Complex Ltd. India (DDT). India imports 90% of our requirement of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and most of it passes through the Strait of Hormuz. The government has invoked the Essential Commodities Act and diverted most of the LPG from the commercial sector to domestic use. "The hotel and restaurant industry, alongside the myriad roadside dhabas (restaurants that serve Indian food) and eateries that dot our highways, provides a lifeline for an estimated 130 million people," wrote Anand Neelakantan. "The gig economy, often touted as the future of Indian labor, is currently in a state of free fall. Over 12 million delivery partners, the backbone of platforms like Zomato and Swiggy, have seen their daily orders drop by 60%." A household can use an electric cooker but restaurants cannot. "By prioritizing the domestic cylinder (of cooking gas) as a political tool, the state is ensuring that while the home stove may stay lit, the kitchen where the breadwinner earns his wage remains empty." "Data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) shows" that "In the first half of FY 2025-26, India produced 6,219 thousand metric tonnes (TMT) of LPG, while consumption stood at 16,200 TMT. Imports filled the gap at 10,731 TMT, translating into an import dependency of around 62%." TOI. The irony is that since 1970 India was said to have a total coastline of 7516.60 Km but using new methodology "the length of India's coastline has been recalculated and is now 11098.81 Km. (shipmin.gov.in. Just a couple of months ago, Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra proclaimed that India's economy was in a "rare Goldilocks period" with high growth and low inflation. DD. That was because of the low price of fuel. Will India produce enormous offshore oil and gas? Once the conflict stops prices of oil and gas will drop. We will quietly go back to imports. Until the next time.