Odisha’s Gas Story: From Bhubaneswar to the Deep Sea
For Odisha, the journey towards becoming an emerging oil and gas frontier began to take shape in 2015, when then Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan
Bhubaneswar: Sometimes, a transformation begins quietly—with the opening of an office, the drawing of lines on a geological map and the belief that something valuable may lie beneath the earth.
For Odisha, the journey towards becoming an emerging oil and gas frontier began to take shape in 2015, when then Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated an ONGC office in Bhubaneswar. What followed was not an overnight discovery, but a decade-long chain of surveys, policy changes, exploration blocks, drilling and, eventually, gas discoveries in the deep waters off the Odisha coast.
The first big step came in 2016, when Odisha was chosen as the starting point of the National Seismic Programme. Thousands of kilometres of seismic surveys were undertaken to look beneath the surface and understand the geological structure of the Mahanadi Basin. In Odisha alone, around 2,530 line kilometres were surveyed across nine districts.
Then came the policy framework. The Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy, introduced in 2016, opened new avenues for exploration and competitive bidding. In 2019, five onshore blocks were awarded to Oil India, while ONGC received a deepwater block that would later become the site of the Utkal and Konark discoveries.
The results finally emerged in January 2024. ONGC announced the Utkal discovery, followed days later by Konark. Their initial gas flows strengthened the case for the Mahanadi Offshore Basin as an important emerging hydrocarbon province.
The story moved another step forward on July 25, 2026, when ONGC began drilling India’s first deepwater appraisal well in the Mahanadi Offshore Basin under the Samudra Manthan Mission. The objective now is to determine whether the discoveries can be commercially developed.
For Odisha, the significance extends beyond gas itself. Commercial success could mean new investment, jobs, industrial activity and government revenues, while potentially giving the state a new identity alongside its established strengths in coal and minerals.
From one office in Bhubaneswar to drilling rigs in the deep sea, Odisha’s hydrocarbon story is a reminder that some of the biggest changes begin long before the first drop of gas reaches the surface.