UPSC Mains 2013 GS Paper 1 Q25: model answer

The US shale revolution turned America into the world's largest oil and gas producer within a decade. India hoped to repeat it: the US EIA (2013) estimated about 96 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable shale gas in India.

What shale resources are

Oil and gas trapped in fine-grained sedimentary rocks, extracted by horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Availability in India

• Cambay basin (Gujarat), Krishna–Godavari, Cauvery, Assam–Arakan, Damodar valley and the Indo-Gangetic plains.
• ONGC drilled its first shale well near Durgapur in 2013, but early results were modest.

Why it is not high on the agenda

• Water: fracking needs huge volumes of water in already water-stressed basins.
• Land and density: shale basins lie under farmland and villages; land acquisition is difficult.
• Pollution: risk of groundwater contamination and methane leaks.
• Data and technology: limited geological data, high costs, few rigs and experience; Indian shale is often deeper and more clay-rich than American shale.
• Policy: low, administered domestic gas prices that discouraged private investors and earlier uncertainty; the 2013 policy let

only national companies explore.

• Energy transition: focus has shifted to renewables and green hydrogen.

Way forward

• Better mapping, pilot projects and water recycling technologies, or waterless fracking methods.
• Clear regulation for environmental safety.

Shale could add to energy security and cut gas imports, but only if it can be extracted without trading one scarcity, energy, for another, water.