India's Hydrocarbon Outlook – 2022-2023

76 DGH: 3 DECADES OF UNLOCKING INDIA'S HYDROCARBON POTENTIAL Himalayan Foreland is a Category III basin and it has an area of 30,110 sq. km. which is entirely onland. In the basin, 4 plays are identified within Pre-Cambrian, Tertiary and Pleistocene. In the adjacent Potwar basin of Pakistan, which is located in the northwestern Himalayas, several oil and gas fields have been discovered. On the basis of such analogy along with available geoscientific knowledge, the areas of Himalayan Foothills of Jammu& Kashmir(J&K), Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and adjoining Indo- Gangetic Plains in Punjab are considered primary targets for hydrocarbon exploration. Himalayan foreland basin is an east–west trending elongate basin that extends from Pakistan in the west to India in the east. The basin came into existence at the close of Mesozoic Era following the first India–Asia impingement ~58 Ma resulting in the deposition of the initial foredeep sediments in front of the rising Himalaya. Hydrocarbon exploration in Himalayan Foothills of erstwhile-named Punjab Basin was initiated in 1956 by M/s ONGC through geological surveys. Field mapping, special studies on (Oligocene) for laboratory analysis of samples. Under geophysical campaign, aeromagnetic surveys were conducted in 1957, which was followed by seismic and gravity-magnetic (GM) surveys in 1957-58. Major part of the basin is covered by GM surveys. Such surveys bring out clearly that northwest-southeast Himalayan trend is the dominant lineament in the basement. However, there is a strong perception of northeast-southwest Aravalli trend in the area lying between Kalka and Dehradun. Initially, seismic surveys conducted in the Punjab plains were of refraction, which was followed by reflection surveys during 1970's, covering mostly the foothill areas. The Himalayan tectonic system comprises the Himalayan orogen, the active foreland basin, and the Indus/Bengal fans; all formed as a result of India-Asian collision in Cenozoic era. 18. HIMALAYAN FORELAND BASIN DGH Internal DGH Archive sedimentary features, reconnoitory traversing and investigations of oil and gas shows were carried out. Geochemical survey was conducted in Subathu (Eocene) and Lower Dharamsala