Domestic oil and gas companies produced 6.05 per cent more natural gas in June, year-on-year. This could result in lesser import of natural gas during the month as gas demand is directly linked to availability.

The country imported 4 per cent less natural gas in June, annually. According to data shared by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, natural gas production during June 2017 was 6.05 per cent higher than production during the same month last year. The country’s total gas production during the month under review stood at 2,755.48 MMSCM (million metric standard cubic metres).

This resulted in lower LNG imports that stood at 1,768 MMSCM during June 2017. Comparably, the country imported 1,958 MMSCM of LNG during June 2016. The total natural gas consumption during June 2016 stood at 4,471 MMSCM; this too came down to 4,442 MMSCM in June 2017.

The spurt in natural gas production was driven by ONGC, which produced 12.92 per cent more gas. ONGC’s gas production stood at 1,974.47 MMSCM in June 2017.

However, there was a minor increase in domestic crude oil production, annually. Crude oil production rose 0.60 per cent during June 2017 against same month last year at 2.98 million tonnes.

The increase in crude oil output during the month under review was mainly from ONGC fields that reported a production of 1.85 million tonnes, 3.13 per cent higher than June 2016. Oil India too pumped out more crude oil during the month, registering an increase of 5.03 per cent at 0.2 million tonne.

According to the Ministry, the crude oil output was lower because of less production from Vedanta’s Barmer oilfields. “Around 100 wells are closed either due to high water cut or require WOJ (work over job) and poor reservoir performance of Bhagyam (oil field). Power fluid pumps’ maintenance job is ongoing in Mangala (field),” it said.

Domestic refiners churned 0.54 per cent less crude oil into fuel during the month under review. Refinery throughput during June 2017 was 20.05 million tonnes. This is 0.54 per cent lower when compared with output in June 2016. This was mainly due to lower processing by joint venture refinery of HPCL-LN Mittal at Bhatinda.

Production from public sector undertaking refineries during June 2017 was 12.08 million tonnes, which is 8.91 per cent higher than the production achieved in June 2016.

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