Driving India’s $5 trillion economy: the oil and gas sector’s transformation

As India accelerates its journey towards becoming a $5 trillion economy, the oil and gas sector is at a defining crossroad, poised not just to facilitate growth, but also act as the very engine propelling India onto the global stage.

India is world’s third-largest energy consumer. According to a recent report by Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, India’s crude imports surged by 6.5% in September 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, with the total crude import bill reaching $10.6 billion. Today, nearly 90% of our energy demand is met through imports.

The evolving geopolitical landscape, with the ongoing wars and new regime in the US, will lead to shifting of alliances and trade policies, further impacting global oil and gas supply chains, affecting prices and availability on a broader scale.

Now is the moment to ramp up the efforts towards increase of domestic production, unlocking untapped reserves and fostering bold private sector participation to reshape India's energy landscape and secure its place as a global economic leader.

To achieve this, we must implement strategic incentives that attract investments from the global players and experts. This will allow the private sector to plan for the long term and make informed, strategic investments that enhance our energy landscape.

Supporting the vision are the prudent government policies such as The Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) and Discovered Small Field Policy (DSF) etc. which are vital steps towards facilitating the early monetisation of previously discovered but undeveloped oil and gas fields, thereby enhancing exploration activities and accelerating production. Similarly, the government's focus on intensifying domestic exploration, increasing production, and promoting energy security through initiatives like the National Seismic Program and the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) are further playing their role in cutting India’s crude oil import dependence.

Driving India’s energy transition

With India's energy demand projected to double by 2040, the urgency for greater participation from the private sector has never been more critical. At Cairn Oil & Gas, we realise this urgency and are working towards increasing domestic crude production. A part of Vedanta group, we are the largest private oil and gas exploration and production company and are currently contributing about a quarter of India’s production. Through our vast exploration campaigns across the nation, we are accelerating our efforts to produce 50% of domestic oil and gas.  

We have been operating in India for the last three decades. Beginning in 1994 with the Ravva redevelopment project in Andhra Pradesh and then discovering the largest onshore oil field – Mangala in Barmer, we have been consistent in our efforts to transform India’s energy landscape.

Cairn has invested over $20 billion to enhance our reserves and resources (R&R) over the years. We are focused on both offshore and onshore exploration to unlock the untapped potential of Indian basins - from the Northeast to the West and East coasts. Our goal is to achieve 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in the near term and 500,000 boepd in the long term. To further catalyse our exploration and drilling campaign, we plan to invest over $4 billion in the next few years.

Supporting India’s vision of energy aatmanirbharta, there is a dire need to increase production from the existing matured fields as well as explore and develop new fields. In line with this, we are running one of the largest exploration programmes in India, leveraging conventional projects like deep and shallow water drilling and unconventional projects like tight oil, shale and coal bed methane. Our goal is to drill ~40 exploration, appraisal, and development wells over the next two years, through campaigns in the Northeast region and coastal areas. We plan to mobilise 20 rigs across sites as part of this campaign, making it one of the company's largest in 15 years.

Northeast remains one of our key exploration areas with the potential of untapped reserves accounting to ~5 billion boe. In line with the government’s vision, we plan to make Northeast the dominant hydrocarbon hub of the nation.

Barmer – Rajasthan, home to our largest oil and gas producing assets comprises of 80% of our volumes, have already contributed >800 million barrels in the last 15 years. We implemented the largest Enhanced Oil Recovery method – Alkaline Surfactant Polymer injection in Mangala, increasing oil recovery by 20% additionally and are currently developing tight oil fields by bringing global expertise and technologies required.

We are also determined to demonstrate the significance of shale in the deeper grabens of Rajasthan fi elds, leveraging the state-of-the-art exploration and development techniques which have been fi ne-tuned in the last decade, largely in North America.

Implementing these exploration and development projects – we are partnering with global
companies and service providers to #ExploreIndiaWithCairn.