These are the areas where there is greater possibility for occurrence of crude oil.

These include : (a) the gulf of Mannar off the Tirunelveli coast, (b) the offshore area between Point Calimere and the Jaffna Peninsula and Avantangi Karaikkudi coasts, (c) offshore deep water area in the Bay of Bengal between 12°N-16″ N and 84°E-86°E, (d) the marine delta region of the Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri rivers, (e) the stretch of sea between South Bengal and Baleshwar coast and the ‘stretch of no ground’, (0 the arid tracts of Rajasthan, (g) a long belt stretching from Kashmir, Punjab and Haryana to western Uttar Pradesh, and (h) the offshore area west of the Andaman Island.

The Government has recently thrown open 48 new oilfields for exploration under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) attracting global competition. These 48 blocks include onshore, off­shore, shallow and deep sea fields.