Oil, gas output show signs of recovery in Dec

The gap between current and pre-Covid levels of production of both crude oil and natural gas narrowed in December 2020.

Crude oil production during December was 2.56 million tonnes, 3.59 per cent lower than December 2019. The gap between current and pre-Covid levels for oil production has been narrowing since November, when crude oil production was 4.91 per cent lower compared with November 2019, according to data released by the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Production also continues to remain below target levels. The government has broadly attributed this to Covid-19 restrictions. Most of oil and gas production comes from state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL). Production planned at ONGC was impacted “due to delay in Mobile Offshore Production Unit (Sagar Samrat) as activities at Gulf piping company (GPC) yard Abu Dhabi got affected due to Covid-19 restrictions/lockdown,” the Ministry said. Similarly, production planned from new wells in Ratna field and Cluster-8 development project was also delayed due to the pandemic-related restrictions, it added.

Meanwhile, natural gas production stood at 2424.90 million standard cubic metres in December, 7.11 per cent lower than December 2019. The government attributed the lower than previous levels production again on Covid-19.

In a more hopeful sign of economic rebound, at 21 mt , the amount of crude oil processed by Indian refineries during December was 0.93 per cent higher than in December 2019, beating pre-Covid levels for the first time in the ongoing financial year.