India's upstream energy ambitions moved from policy to contract on Thursday, October 15, 2026, as Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri presided over the signing of contracts for the Special Coal Bed Methane (CBM) Bid Rounds 2025 and 2026 — a milestone he called a 'renewed push for unconventional gas exploration' — alongside the launch of the India Hydrocarbon Outlook 2026.

CBM Bid Rounds 2025-26: What Was Signed and Why It Matters

Coal Bed Methane sits at the heart of India's unconventional gas strategy. The minister cited an estimated resource base of 2,600 BCF — though the full verified quantum remains subject to ongoing technical assessment — as the foundation for accelerating domestic production from a resource that has historically been under-exploited relative to its potential.

India has maintained a dedicated CBM policy framework since the early 2000s, but output has lagged expectations. The 2025 and 2026 bid rounds, signed under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and overseen by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), represent the latest attempt to close that gap — this time with revenue-sharing contracts aligned to the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) framework introduced in 2016.

Samudra Manthan: Deepwater Drilling Gets a Shared-Cost Model

The other headline from the event was the government's spotlight on Samudra Manthan, PM Narendra Modi's offshore exploration programme. The scheme targets India's vast deepwater and ultra-deepwater acreage through three levers: new seismic surveys, shared drilling costs across approximately 60 deep- and ultra-deep-water wells, and common offshore infrastructure.

The logic is straightforward. Deepwater drilling is expensive enough to deter single-operator risk; a shared-cost model lowers the threshold for both public-sector giants like Oil India Limited and private players. India's crude import dependence currently exceeds 80 percent, and mature onshore basins have delivered declining output for years. Offshore reserves — particularly in the deepwater blocks off India's eastern and western coasts — remain the most credible route to materially shifting that equation.

India Hydrocarbon Outlook 2026: Science-Led Exploration as National Strategy

The launch of the India Hydrocarbon Outlook 2026 alongside the contract signings signals an intent to anchor future rounds in data and science rather than acreage-counting alone. Puri described the next phase of upstream growth as being driven by 'science-based exploration, technology-enabled development and stronger collaboration among government, industry, service providers, technology partners and research institutions.'

That framing matters. India has, under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) introduced with HELP, moved toward continuous online bidding — giving explorers the ability to nominate blocks on demand rather than waiting for discrete licensing rounds. The Hydrocarbon Outlook document is intended to give industry a consolidated picture of India's prospectivity to attract bids under that system.

The 80-Percent Import Problem Driving Every Decision

Every upstream initiative the government announces traces back to the same stubborn number: India imports more than 80 percent of its crude oil needs, a vulnerability that was exposed sharply during global price spikes. The CBM contracts and Samudra Manthan are two flanks of the same campaign — one targeting onshore unconventional gas, the other chasing offshore oil and gas at depth.

Whether the contracts translate to production ramp-up will depend on how quickly seismic data acquisition moves under Samudra Manthan and how fast the newly signed CBM blocks progress from exploration to development drilling. Both timelines are measured in years, not months. But October 15, 2026 marks the moment the government put pen to paper — and that is where the clock starts.