Oil Min to overhaul exploration policy: Pradhan

While the house is set in order, Pradhan wants India, which spent USD 143 billion to import crude oil last year, to diversify its purchases to guard against geopolitical risks in some of the world's biggest suppliers."I met officials from the US recently and asked them to allow oil exports to India. We are keen to import oil from US, which currently does not allow oil exports. We will look at Russia and Latin America too," he said.Global oil prices slumping by 25 per cent from about USD 115 for a barrel in June to USD 85 or so, last week emboldened the government to press ahead with politically risky decisions of scrapping controls on diesel prices and raising natural gas tariff for the first time in four years, in a bid to lure investors and revive the economy."I consider these as big ticket reforms," Pradhan said, adding that the government has also announced a 10-point reform of PSC for early monetisation of fields.For the next licensing round, the experience of nine rounds of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) where government entered into Production Sharing Contract (PSC) with explorers, like Reliance Industries, will be used.