India has oil reserves to last only till 2016, if no new discovery is made, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said on Thursday.

"As per the Ninth Five-Year Plan document, presuming no further discoveries are made, the hydrocarbon reserves of the country are unlikely to last beyond 2016 at the production levels of 2001-02," he said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

As on April 1, 2004, balance recoverable oil plus oil equivalent of gas (O+OEG) is of the order of 1658 million tonnes, he said.

Aiyar said new areas are being opened up for exploration and national oil companies are implementing enhanced exploration programmes to discover more oil and gas in the country.