As India’s appetite for energy grows, the country is opening its door to potential participants in shale oil and gas plays in hopes of meeting the rising demand.

Energy consumption in India, which is the world’s fourth-largest energy consumer following the US, China, and Russia, more than doubled between 1990 and 2011, US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data showed. Hope could lie in the country’s emerging shale plays if ventures are successful in not only tapping oil and gas but also developing needed infrastructure to get resources to market.

A new policy, expected to be unveiled in about a week, would allow companies to extract oil and gas from shale rocks in blocks already given out by the government. The move would be a first for the country, paving the way for companies such as the state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) and Reliance Industries Ltd. to increase E&P activity and help reduce the country’s reliance on imports.

“We want to get the process started, to enable companies to at least start producing from fields where they’re already drilling for conventional oil and gas,” India’s Petroleum Secretary Vivek Rae told Bloomberg News. “This is the first phase, and we’ll later open up more areas.”

India has an estimated 63 Tcf of technically recoverable shale gas, while the country’s proved natural gas reserves stands at about 38 Tcf, according to the EIA. Areas attracting attention for possible unconventional gas play include the Cambay, Assam-Arakan, and Gondwan basins.

In the Cambay basin alone, there is an estimated 924 Bcf of technically recoverable gas and 31 MMbbl of NGLs, according to a 2011 US Geological Survey report. The country’s first shale oil discovery was made there by Joshi Technologies in 2010, the EIA said.

ONGC announced in January 2011 its first shale gas find when gas flowed from an R&D well near Durgapur.

The push toward opening shale plays comes as the country works to reform its oil and gas sector, which has seen production stagnate in recent years, as part of its Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-2017). The EIA reported domestic crude production, for example, has grown 1% annually since 1990.

“The government has encouraged private and foreign companies to enter the upstream sector in recent years,” the EIA said. “Reliance Industries (RIL) is becoming a major upstream force because of natural gas discoveries in Krishna-Godavari basin. RIL has a strategic partnership with BP, which has a 30% stake in 21 of RIL’s production-sharing contracts. Other major international oil companies are largely absent from India’s upstream sector.

“ONGC and Gujarat State Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (GSPCL) are also developing several offshore areas in Krishna-Godavari basin. Another promising producing area is the Cambay basin in western India, where independent company Oilex has done some preliminary work assessing the potential for tight natural gas.”

The EIA projects India and China to account for most of Asia’s energy demand growth through 2035. Currently, coal remains India’s top source for energy at 41%, followed by biomass and waste, and petroleum, each at 23%. Natural gas and nuclear/other renewable round out the total energy consumption breakdown at 8% and 5%, respectively.

Contact the author, Velda Addison, at vaddison@hartenergy.com.