The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that in order to exploit shale gas & Oil in the country, Government of India on 14th October, 2013 announced the Policy Guidelines for Exploration and Exploitation of Shale Gas and Oil by National Oil Companies (ONGC and Oil India Limited (OIL)) in their onland Petroleum Exploration License (PEL) / Petroleum Mining Lease (PML) areas awarded under the nomination regimes.
In pursuance of this Policy, under the first phase of assessment ONGC has identified and initiated shale gas and oil exploration activities in 50 PEL/PML areas; and OIL has identified and initiated shale gas exploration activities in 6 PEL/PML areas. The State-wise details of the identified shale gas blocks are given below:
| S.No. | State/UT | Number of Blocks |
| 1 | Andhra Pradesh | 10 |
| 2 | Arunachal Pradesh | 2 |
| 3 | Assam | 6 |
| 4 | Gujarat | 28 |
| 5 | Tamil Nadu | 9 |
| 6 | Rajasthan | 1 |
| Total | 56 |
So far, ONGC has drilled 20 assessment wells for Shale gas and oil. OIL has completed G&G studies and Geochemical analysis in its identified areas. Further, OIL has completed Conventional Core in one well in Rajasthan.
In order to promote exploration and exploitation of unconventional hydrocarbon resources such as CBM, shale oil & gas, Government has recently approved a Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) wherein companies can explore and produce all kind of hydrocarbons including shale oil/gas, CBM & gas hydrate, etc. under single license.