The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) said on Tuesday that notwithstanding with the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, the project activity has resumed in 8,363 Oil & Gas projects amounting to ₹ 5.88 lakh crore in India. The Domestic oil and natural gas companies have planned employment-oriented operational expenditure (OPEX) of around ₹ 41,672 crore for FY-21, which is expected to generate around 145 million labor days of direct and indirect employment. Out of the stated quantum, ₹ 11,296 crore has already been spent on creating 44 million man-days of jobs, the Ministry added.
The Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan has expressed to the state-run energy companies to efficiently implement oil and gas sector projects. These are worth ₹ 5.88 lakh crore intended to generate employment and revive the economy and sectorial growth after the COVID-19 pandemic blows over, an official from the MoPNG said.
Close to 8,363 oil and gas projects are currently in motion, which will incur capital expenditure of ₹ 1.2 lakh crore out of budgeted total capital expenditure of ₹ 5.88 lakh crore for FY-21. As on August 15, around Rs 26,576 crore has already been spent in this fiscal on these projects. The firms in these projects have spent around ₹ 3,258 crore on labor-related issues, as per the Ministry.
“These projects will create a virtuous cycle of investments and will play a crucial role in revival of the Indian economy after the Covid-19 pandemic,” said the official quoting Pradhan.
“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 8,363 projects, out of which more than 9.76 crore man-days of employment generation is targeted in FY 2020-21 itself,” he added.
Refineries, bio-refineries, exploration and production activities, marketing infrastructure projects, pipelines, city gas distribution projects, drilling and survey activities are inclusive in the list of projects implemented by Public sector undertakings(PSU), CPSE oil and gas firms along with their subsidiaries.
Oil and Natural gas Corporation, Hindustan petroleum Corporation Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, GAIL India Ltd, Oil India Ltd and HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd are some of the official PSUs under the project.
According to the Minister, a targeted budget of around ₹ 1.62 lakh crore is to be spent by these companies, that include capital and employment oriented operational expenditures (OPEX). They have potential to generate around 24 crore man-days of employment.
“The amount spent will create a virtuous cycle of investments. It will play a crucial role in the revival of the Indian economy. It will also provide employment opportunities to the people,” he said.
From the total of 8,363 projects, the evaluated cost for major 25 projects is ₹ 1.67 lakh crore, he says.
Going by the released statement, direct/indirect employment of around 4.4 crore man-days have been generated through OPEX until August 15, 2020.
Author’s Opinion:
The project will revitalize the employment and labour crisis in the country. The sum involved is huge considering these are Infrastructure projects, the revenue generated will give a major boost to Government in the form of taxes and will raise the cash flow around, as higher the employment rate the more and better consumption in the economy. Due to COVID pandemic, the restricted outflow supply of funds from the households is one of the primary reasons for revenue deficit. Through these steps and employed labor will soon aid the economic slump.