Monday 27 January 2014

India’s crude oil production up by 1.6%; natural gas output down by 10% in December

India's crude oil production rose by 1.6 percent to 3.25 million tonnes (MT) in December 2013 from 3.20 MT in the same month of last year, on the back of higher output from Cairn India's Rajasthan oilfields helping to offset the drop in production from state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) fields. ONGC’s crude oil production declined by around 3 percent to 1.88 MT in December from 1.94 MT recorded in same month of previous year. On the other hand, Cairn India's oil output soared by around 16 percent to 0.83 MT.

Indian natural gas production dipped by 9.9 percent to 3,001 million cubic meters in the month as Reliance Industries' KG-D6 field reported 35.8 percent drop in offshore natural gas output to 672 million cubic meters. RIL's domestic refinery at Jamnagar recorded 11.9 percent drop in fuel output in December due to a planned maintenance shutdown. Country’s overall fuel production from 22 domestic refineries declined by 1.7 percent 18.63 MT in December’ 2013 from 18.95 MT petroleum products produced in December’ 2012.

As India’s oil and gas demand has been increasing at robust pace, it has become imperative to enhance the country’s oil and gas production. Oil ministry has formulated a roadmap for cutting India's dependence on imports to meet its oil and gas needs. India currently imports around 80 percent of its oil needs and the Ministry wants this to be cut to 50 percent by 2020 and by 25 percent in 2025 through intensive exploration and exploitation of untapped reserves.

Oil Minister M V Moily has also announced setting up of a Multi-Organisational Team (MOT) to re-examine India’s hydrocarbon resources in all 26 sedimentary basins in the country. India will offer at least 46 oil and gas blocks soon under the 10th round of NELP auction under completely revamped terms. Tenth round of NELP auction will be the second highest offering of blocks since the advent of NELP in 1997, a common platform for public and private sector companies to bid for the blocks.

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