Section 18(1) in The Offshore Areas Mineral Concession Rules, 2006
(1)Every exploration licence granted under these rules, shall, in addition to any other conditions that may be specified therein, be subject to the following conditions, namely:-(i)the licensee shall pay exploration charges at the rate of five thousand rupees as a consideration for every standard block of five minutes latitude by five minutes longitude covered by the exploration licence for each year or part of a year of the period for which licence is granted or renewed;(ii)for every standard block as specified in clause (i), the licensee may win and carry for purposes other than commercial purposes -(a)any quantity of such minerals within the limits specified in column (3) of the Schedule without any payment;(b)any quantity of such minerals not exceeding the limits specified in column (4) of the Schedule on payment of royalty for the time being specified in the First Schedule to the Act in respect to those minerals:Provided that if any quantity in excess of the quantities referred to in sub-clause (b) is won and carried away, the administering authority shall recover the cost of the excess quantity of minerals won and carried away.(iii)with the written approval of the administering authority, the licensee may carry away quantities of minerals in excess of the limits specified in the Schedule, on payment of royalty for the time being specified in the First Schedule to the Act, for chemical, metallurgical, ore-dressing and other test purposes;(iv)(a)the licensee shall report to the administering authority the discovery of any mineral not specified in the licence within a period of sixty days from the date of such discovery. Consequent upon such reporting, the newly discovered mineral shall be deemed to have been included in the exploration licence except the mineral oils namely oil, gas, gas hydrate, oil sands or any other hydrocarbon compound,(b)the licencee shall, if encountered during exploration operations, report indications of any form of mineral oil, namely, oil, gas, gas hydrate, oil sands or any other hydrocarbon compound, to the administering authority within a period of sixty days from the date of such encounter, who in turn shall pass on the information to the Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas:Provided that no atomic mineral shall be included in the exploration licence without approval of the Department of Atomic Energy.(v)(a)the licensee shall not, except with the previous sanction of the administering authority, transfer his licence to any person:Provided that no exploration licence shall be transferred to any person who has not filed an affidavit stating that he has filed an up-to-date income-tax return and paid the income tax assessed on him and paid the income tax on the basis of self assessment as provided in the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961):Provided further that the administering authority shall not grant its sanction for the transfer of exploration licence unless the transferee has accepted all the conditions and liabilities, which the transferor has in respect of such exploration licence.(b)where on an application for grant of sanction to transfer the exploration licence under sub-clause (a), the administering authority has granted sanction for transfer of such licence, a transfer deed in Form J, or a form as near thereto as possible shall be executed within three months of the date of consent, or within such further period as the administering authority may allow in this behalf.(c)the administering authority may, by order in writing and after providing the licensee the opportunity of being heard, cancel such exploration licence at any time if the licensee has, in the opinion of the administering authority, committed a breach of this clause;(vi)the licensee shall not pay any wage less than the minimum wages prescribed by the appropriate Government from time to time, under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 (11 of 1948);(vii)the licensee shall make available all data or information collected by him and submit reports as per the provisions of clauses (a), (b), (c) and (d) of sub-section (2) of section 5;(viii)the licensee shall maintain accurate and true account of all the expenses incurred by him on the exploration operations and also the quantity and other particulars of all minerals obtained during such as operations and their dispatch;(ix)the licensee shall allow every officer authorised by the Central Government or the administering authority in this behalf to examine at any time accounts maintained and furnish the Central Government or the administering authority or any other officer authorised by it in that behalf such information and returns as they may desire;(x)the licensee shall allow any officer authorised by the Central Government or the administering authority in this behalf to inspect any exploration operations carried on by him;(xi)the licensee shall give at least two months advance notice before commencement of the exploration work to the Ministry of Defence to ensure that the exploration work does not interfere with any Naval exercise in the area;(xii)to undertake the exploration operations only Indian contracted companies should preferably be deployed. In case foreign contracted companies are to be deployed, prior approval of the Ministry of Defence shall be obtained and data shall be collected under supervision of Indian representatives of the licensee who shall ensure appropriate security safeguards;(xiii)the exploration data should be processed in India and such processed and unprocessed data may be imparted to any foreign contractor only with prior approval of the Central Government;(xiv)all vessels deployed for exploratory work by the licensee himself or contracted companies shall undergo Naval security inspection of the Indian Navy under the aegis of the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the concerned Naval Command, Flag Officer, Offshore Defence Advisory Group prior to their deployment. A clear one month's notice is to be given to facilitate clearance or inspection.(xv)all vessels deployed for exploratory work by the licensee shall obtain prior clearance from the Directorate General of Shipping in terms of the relevant provisions of the Merchant and Shipping Act, 1958 (44 of 1958) and the rules made thereunder;(xvi)intimation regarding awards of contracts to other contracted companies along with details of the contracts shall be forwarded to the Naval Headquarters (Directorate of Naval Intelligence), Ministry of Defence suitably in advance of the operations by the licensee providing six monthly long case on vessels deployment, by operating companies;(xvii)appropriate visa shall have to be obtained from the competent authority for all foreign personnel on board the vessel and for this purpose, the contracted company shall provide a list of such foreign nationals to competent authority for prior visa authorization;(xviii)the licensee shall take all precautionary measures for safety and security of all vessels or equipments deployed for exploration activities(xix)for issuing the marine safety warnings, the licensee shall immediately inform the Flag Officer, Offshore Defence Advisory Group and the administering authority the location indicating all vessels and equipments or machinery deployed at particular location and thereafter its new location as and when it is shifted.
