Domestic crude oil production fell for the second month in succession in July, falling 0.39 per cent year-on-year to 3.134 million tonnes, while natural gas production also continued its decline falling 4.38 per cent to 2.620 billion cubic meters.

While the Government has been pushing oil and gas companies to raise hydrocarbons and lower the country’s dependence on imports, the results are not yet showing. In three out of the four months of the 2015-16 fiscal for which the data is out, there has been a decline in both crude oil and natural gas production.

ONGC's production growth

After a brief spike from ONGC’s offshore fields towards in the fourth quarter of the fiscal 2014-15, production growth from these fields have again slowed down.

ONGC’s offshore production growth in crude oil was 2.36 per cent in July 2015. This coupled with a 7.86 per cent drop in production of crude oil from its onshore fields meant that overall the company’s crude oil production had fallen 0.44 per cent to 1.880 mt during the month.

At the company’s first quarter results last week, ONGC’s Chairman and Managing Director D K Sarraf said the company is working to arrest the decline in production and expects ‘good news’ by the end of the current fiscal.

Oil India production

The other public sector oil and gas exploration company Oil India also had a 6.72 per cent drop in crude oil production during the month at 0.275 mt.

While the public sector companies suffered a fall, production from joint venture and private sector fields increased marginally by 1.64 per cent to 0.978 mt. However, Cairn India’s Rajasthan fields remained a concern with a fall in production of 2.57 per cent.

In natural gas, apart from ONGC’s onshore fields and the onshore fields of the joint venture and private sector fields, there was a production drop across the board. The onshore fields contribute less than 20 per cent to the country’s production and during the month it was at 0.516 billion cubic meters.

Meanwhile, domestic refiners processed 2.9 per cent more crude oil during the month at 18.668 mt.

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