India’s crude oil production fell for the sixth straight year in 2017-18 to 35.68 million tonne, pushing the country’s import dependence for crude further to 82.8 per cent and dampening prospects for the centre’s plan to cut reliance on energy imports by 10 per cent through 2022.

New Delhi: India’s crude oil production fell for the sixth straight year in 2017-18 to 35.68 million tonne, pushing the country’s import dependence for crude further to 82.8 per cent and dampening prospects for the centre’s plan to cut reliance on energy imports by 10 per cent through 2022.

The fall in the country’s crude oil production comes at a time India’s oil import bill is expected to increase by 20 per cent to $105 billion in 2018-2019 on the back of recent rally in global oil prices. Crude oil production has been on a decline primarily due to fall in output from nearly all offshore and onshore blocks, data for the last seven years sourced from the oil ministry shows.

At least one analyst, however, expects domestic oil production to grow by 1-2 MT in the medium term and over the long term if the country is able to monetize on the discovered fields under Discovered Small Field (DSF-1) round and the ongoing Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP).

“India’s crude production should increase by 1-2 million tonnes in the medium term with the developmental projects being initiated by Vedanta Ltd in its Rajasthan block, ONGC in Western offshore and KG basin, and Enhanced Oil Recovery initiatives of ONGC and OIL,” K Ravichandran, Senior Vice President at research and ratings agency ICRA said. “Production increase over the long term will be a function of discoveries under HELP, OALP and MSF rounds and the speed of regulatory approvals for the developmental projects,” he added.

However, taken together, India’s crude oil and natural gas production grew marginally for the first time in five years, publicly available data since financial year 2011-2012 showed. Domestic oil and gas production in 2017-2018 grew 0.58 per cent to 68.3 in Million Tonne of Oil Equivalent (MMTOE) on the back of growth in gas production.

Domestic natural gas production in 2017-2018 grew by 2.35 per cent to 32.64 Billion Cubic Meter (BCM) as compared to the year ago period. Data shows the country’s natural gas production grew for the first time in a few years as output from onshore blocks offset the decline from offshore blocks last fiscal.

The country recorded its highest ever natural gas production from onshore blocks in 2017-2018. Gas production from onshore blocks including Coal Bed Methane (CBM) grew 8 per cent to 10,639 MMSCM last financial year as compared to 9,858 MMSCM recorded in the previous fiscal.