The government can partly keep crude import bill and prices under control by supporting oil companies in acquiring rigs for exploration of domestic hydrocarbon sources, according to industry body Assocham said. Currently, 70 per cent of India's petroleum, oil and lubricant requirements are met through imports which might go up to 90 per cent by 2010, Assocham said in its paper on 'Indian Oil & Gas Sector: An Overview.' If the mismatch between demand for drilling rigs and their supply and shortage of skilled personnel were not addressed urgently, India's crude import would go up by 20 per cent. "The availability of rigs should be created with government efforts and oil production companies be given free hand to order chartering of rigs from their manufacturers even without little intervention as one-day operational costs for a rig works out to be nearly 1,40,000 dollars," said the chamber. "Shortages of drilling rigs by over 60 per cent and the crunch of skilled personnel of over 40 per cent will also increase the project cost by 30 per cent in the next 3-4 years," it said. Assocham president Ven-ugopal Dhoot said, "The rigs' demand have risen globally in response to relatively high energy prices and Indian exploration and production companies are feeling the pinch." "A total of 150 offshore rigs were on order or under construction until recently as compared to about 30 in April 2005. "Fabrication yards that make rigs are running huge backlogs and some of the reputed yards are completely booked with current orders till 2010," Mr. Dhoot said. As far as shortage of skilled manpower is concerned, the upstream sector faces up to 40 per cent shortfall against its current requirement. India produces 4,00,000 engineers, 60,000 MBAs and 7,000 PhDs every year, only 10-25 per cent of them are considered employable, the paper added. The global exploration and production workforce alone is around 3,75,000, it said. Looking at the current demand-supply scenario of trained manpower for professional services in oil and gas sector by 2012, the manpower requirement would be doubled, it added.