As per extant Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy, FDI, up to 100%, is permitted, under the automatic route, for exploration activities of oil and natural gas fields, infrastructure related to marketing of petroleum products and natural gas, marketing of natural gas and petroleum products, petroleum product pipelines, natural gas/pipelines, LNG regasification infrastructure, market study and formulation and petroleum refining in the private sector, subject to the existing sectoral policy and regulatory framework in the oil marketing sector and the policy of the Government on private participation in exploration of oil and the discovered fields of national oil companies. Extant FDI policy, therefore, does not envisage Government approval for bringing FDI into companies carrying on these activities.

This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Dr. D. Purandeswari in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

DS/RK

(Release ID :94024)

Foreign investment automatic route allows full FDI for oil and natural gas projects, subject to sectoral regulatory framework. Full foreign direct investment is allowed via the automatic route for exploration, marketing and related infrastructure in the oil and natural gas sector, including pipelines and LNG regasification, subject to the existing sectoral policy and regulatory framework and the government policy on private participation in exploration and discovered fields, and thus does not envisage separate government approval for bringing such FDI into companies engaged in these activities.