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Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an allocation of ₹85,000 crore for Samudra Manthan in the 80th Independence Day address from the Red Fort on 15 August 2026.
Samudra Manthan is the National Offshore Exploration Scheme of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, approved by the Union Cabinet on 31 July 2026 as a Central Sector Scheme running up to FY 2030-31 with an outlay of ₹84,084 crore.
The Union Government will bear up to 50% of the cost of drilling deepwater exploration wells, sharing the exploration risk that has kept private capital away.
Offshore areas restricted as 'no-go' have been cut from 13.67 lakh sq km to 24,832 sq km, opening roughly 99% of India's coastal waters to exploration.
The scheme is expected to catalyse reserve accretion of over 600 Million Metric Tons of Oil Equivalent (MMTOE).
Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a coastal state's EEZ extends up to 200 nautical miles from its baseline. Within it, the state does not hold sovereignty as it does over territorial waters, but it does hold sovereign rights over exploring and exploiting natural resources — living and non-living — of the waters, the seabed and the subsoil. Other states retain freedom of navigation and overflight. India's EEZ covers about 23.6 lakh sq km, which is why offshore hydrocarbons are treated as a domestic, not an imported, resource.
Simple Analogy: Territorial waters are your house; the EEZ is the field behind it. Anyone may walk across the field, but only you may harvest the crop.
GS Paper III > Infrastructure — energy; Indian Economy — resource mobilisation. GS Paper I > Distribution of key natural resources
General Awareness > Government schemes
General Awareness > Union Cabinet decisions and scheme outlays
A sedimentary basin with little or no exploration history and therefore high geological uncertainty.
Offshore drilling in the greatest water depths, requiring specialised rigs and the highest cost per well.
The addition of newly established recoverable reserves to a country's existing reserve base.