The Iran War, which has led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, disrupts the flow of global energy supplies, intensifying the energy crisis across the world. Cooking gas prices in India are surging because of severe global supply chain disruptions and soaring benchmark energy costs triggered by the ongoing conflict in West Asia. With the South Asian country importing over 60% of its LPG, consumers are directly impacted by the volatile international pressures. Under these circumstances, energy hungry India has discovered a natural gas reserve in the Andaman Sea, approximately 15-17km off the east coast of the Andaman Islands. Needless to say, the discovery of massive, continuous natural gas deposits in the Andaman shallow offshore block brings substantial relief to the Government of India.

Hardeep Singh Puri, the Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, recently confirmed the news via a post on X, stating: “An ocean of energy opportunities reinforced in the Andaman Sea! Very happy to report the presence of natural gas in Sri Vijayapuram-3, an exploratory well drilled by Oil India Limited (OIL) 15km off the east coast of the Andaman Islands at a water depth of 355 metres.” He added: “Under the Samudra Manthan Mission (National Deep Water Exploration Mission) announced by Hon’ble PM @narendramodi Ji on Independence Day 2025, a large number of deepwater & ultra-deepwater exploration wells are planned in our offshore basins to fully exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.”

The exploratory well drilled by OIL in the Andaman Sea is officially named Sri Vijayapuram-3. The Indian public sector company – engaged in the exploration, development and production of crude oil and natural gas, transportation of crude oil, and production of liquid petroleum gas – has conducted natural gas exploration at three locations in the area over the past few years and struck major natural gas reserves in two of them.

According to India’s Hydrocarbon Resource Assessment Study (HRAS), hydrocarbon resources of 371 million Metric Tonnes of Oil Equivalent could be present in the Andaman Basin, which translates to roughly 2.7 billion barrels of combined oil and gas. Industry estimates, too, suggest that the Andaman Basin could hold between 307 million and 370 million metric tonnes (MMT) of oil-equivalent hydrocarbons. However, Petroleum Minister Puri has suggested a directional estimate of 11.6 billion barrels. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a target to attract USD 100 billion in investments into India’s oil and gas sector by 2030 in an attempt to support expanding refining capacity, boosting domestic exploration and enhancing energy security.

Although natural gas has been discovered in the Andaman Sea, India will have to wait a few more years for its commercial production as discovering natural gas is only the first step in a long pipeline-to-production timeline. Offshore basins generally require five-10 years to reach large-scale commercial production because of necessary appraisal drilling, infrastructure development and logistical hurdles. The OIL is currently conducting isotope studies following the major natural gas discovery at the Sri Vijayapuram-3 exploratory well.

Meanwhile, Puri stressed: “It is only a matter of time. We will find a large reserve, like Guyana, in the Andaman Sea.” Guyana officially ranks as the 17th largest oil-reserve country in the world, holding approximately 11 to 11.6 billion barrels of proven oil reserves.

Meanwhile,

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das