Junior Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel told Parliament Tuesday the exploration and production drilling activities are being carried out in Assam, Tripura, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, eastern and western offshore areas.

"In-place proven hydrocarbons reserves as on April 1, 2007, in the country are 8865.46 million metric tons. In production-sharing contracts regime, some exploration blocks have been awarded to private joint ventures companies," Patel said in a statement.

He said total initial in-place hydrocarbons reserves of 1467.6 MMT have been established by private companies and joint ventures, adding production of crude oil and gas by the terminal year of the 11th five-year plan (2011-12) is projected to be 39.51 MMT and 63.23 billion cubic meters respectively.