Good wicket: India has just totted up total investment commitments under Nelp
India scores with $10bn Nelp spend
Figures released by the Economic Survey of India show that the country's New Exploration & Licensing Policy (Nelp) has, as of 1 April, exploration investment commitments totalling about $10 billion.
The Nelp regime has seen 203 production sharing contracts signed since 1999, increasing India's area under exploration more than four times.
Against the major investment commitment in exploration, actual expenditure so far under the policy is about $4.7 billion.
On top of this, $5.2 billion has been invested into the development of discoveries, such as the D6 Block in the Krishna Godavari Basin and the Cairn's Mangala discovery in Rajasthan.