India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has begun a campaign to boost oil and gas production through well optimization and accelerating the start of production at recently made discoveries, the company has said, as quoted by Fortune India.
ONGC produces some 70% of India’s crude oil and 84% of its natural gas. However, the company has witnessed a gradual decline in both oil and gas production due to natural depletion, which it wants to reverse in order to boost self-sufficiency in hydrocarbons.
Between 2020 and 2025, ONGC’s crude oil production declined from 22.533 million metric tons to 20.892 million metric tons, while natural gas production slid down to 20.19 billion cu m from 22.816 billion cu m.
Not a moment too soon, either, as the U.S. has threatened India with secondary tariffs unless it stops buying crude oil from Russia, which the U.S. is pressuring alongside Europe in an attempt to bring a faster end to the war in Ukraine.
India has officially refused to stop buying Russian crude, but reports from mainstream media say that Indian refiners have started buying more U.S. crude and shunning Russian oil cargos. Even so, Russian oil flows to India are averaging some 2 million barrels daily so far this month, per data from Kpler, cited this week by The Hindu.
India’s domestic oil and gas production is nowhere near enough to meet even half of its demand for oil and gas, but any boost to domestic supply would be welcome as a replacement for import dependence, which currently stands at an impressive 85% of total demand for oil.
In the current financial year, ONGC reported nine new discoveries that should help its efforts to reverse the slide in oil and gas production and won the exploration rights to 15 blocks tendered by the Indian government.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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