OIL & GAS

An Overview

Petrol station
A petrol station in downtown Kolkata. There are over 64 600 fuel retail outlets across India, the majority of which are run by public sector oil companies. Indian Oil, BPCL and HPCL manage over 55 000 retail outlets. Numaligarh Refinery operates ca 80 retail outlets. The private sector and multinationals (such as Esso and Caltex) were banned to operate in the fuel retail sector from 1976 till 2002. Newcomers since 2002 include Reliance (ca 1 370 outlets), Nayara Energy (5000+ outlets) and Shell.

India's estimated crude oil reserves amounted to approx. 620 million tons in 2019 mainly in offshore oil fields in the Arabian Sea and onshore reserves in Assam and Rajasthan. India imports around 75 % of its total oil consumption. Public sector companies dominate the oil and gas sector. A few private sector companies such as RIL, RPL and Nayara Energy are investing heavily in the oil and gas sector. RIL's existing 34 MMTPA Jamnagar (Gujarat) oil refinery is the fifth largest in the world while RPL's new refinery, the sixth largest refinery in the world and located also in Jamnagar, was commissioned in 2008. India produced 29.7 million tonnes of crude oil in 2021-22. Offshore and onshore field production was roughly equal at 17.6 MMT and 16 MMT respectively. India's dependence on imported oil, valued at ca USD 112 billion, increased to almost 84 % in 2018-19 with a decrease in domestic oil production. Overall oil consumption increased to 212 MMT for the same year making India the third largest oil consuming nation in the world after the United States and PRC accounting for approx. five per cent of global oil demand (2021).

Onshore oil is mainly produced in Assam and Gujarat. RIL and RPL announced a merger of the two companies in 2009 positioning the company as the 13th largest oil refining corporation in the world. Indian Oil, India's second largest oil refining company, is ranked 19th globally. India exported over 59 MMT of petroleum products valued at ₹ 1.96 trillion (ca USD 30½ bn in 2015) ranking India as one of the largest refined oil exporting nations.

India's oil refining capacity amounted to ca 249 MMTPA (Million Metric Tonne Per Annum) in 2021-22 ranking India as the fourth largest in the world after the United States, China and Russia. Total refined crude output was approx. 242 million tons in 2021-22. ONGC Videsh is a stakeholder in the multinational Sakhalin-I Project which now has begun the supply of oil to India. Indian state-owned oil companies have invested in oil and gas fields in a dozen foreign countries including Russia, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Qatar, Ivory Coast, Australia, Vietnam and Myanmar (Burma). India imported oil worth ₹ 4.6 trillion, LNG worth ₹ 549 billion and petroleum products valued at ₹ 1.1 trillion in 2020/21, all in all around 21 % of India's total merchandise imports.

55 blocks (24 deep water, 6 shallow water and 25 onshore) for the exploration of oil and gas were on offer in the sixth auction under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) and are expected to bring investments to the tune of USD 8-10 billion. A total of 57 blocks are on offer on the 7th round of NELP.

Cairn, Oil and Gas vertical of Vedanta Limited, is the largest private sector crude oil producer in India.

Vizag refinery
A view of the HPCL refinery at Visakhapatnam.

Natural Gas

India has an estimated 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves (2016) of which approx. 60 % lie in the Krishna-Godavari basin and Western offshore gas fields. India produced just over 34 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2021-22.

Oil Refineries

India has 18 public sector refineries and five refineries in the private sector/or as joint ventures, the largest refineries being RIL Jamnagar (Gujarat), NEL Vadinar (Gujarat) and IOC Panipat (Haryana). Three new refineries have been proposed for implementation at Paradip (Orissa), Bina (Madhya Pradesh) and Bhatinda (Punjab). Essar Oil operates a 10.5 MMTPA refinery at Vadinar, Gujarat. RIL's and RPL's two refineries at Jamnagar have a total capacity of 1.24 million bpd, making these the world's largest combined oil refining facility. Indian Oil's Digboi (Assam) refinery, Asia's first, along with its oil field is one of the oldest continously operating refineries in the world. Total crude oil processed during 2021-22 was approx. 242 MMTPA. Exports amounted to 68.4 MMTPA of various petroleum products valued at ₹ 3.71 trillion.

Proposed/Under Construction Grassroots Refineries
Location State Capacity (MMTPA) Company Major Stakeholders Misc Status
Bhatinda Punjab 9 (currently being expanded to 11½) HPCL- Mittal Energy Ltd. HPCL and Mittal Energy Investment Pte Ltd - Singapore 165MV captive power plant, 1012 km pipeline to Mundra, Gujarat Operating since Mar '12
Visakhapatnam Andhra Pradesh 15 HPCL Total Expansion of current Vizag refinery
Bina Madhya Pradesh 6 (currently being expanded to 7.8) Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd BPCL and Oman Oil Company Ltd A 935 km crude oil pipeline from Vadinar, Gujarat to Bina, MP Completed in 2011
Barmer Rajasthan 9 HRRL  HPCL and Govt. of Rajasthan The ₹ 432 bn project would be Rajasthan's largest single investment. Financial closure achieved in Jan '19
Kakinada Andhra Pradesh 14 Mangalore Refinery (ONGC subsidiary) Mangalore Refinery, IL&FS, Andhra Pradesh Govt. Export oriented refinery-cum-petrochem complex, planning stage.
Paradip Orissa 5 Indian Oil Indian Oil A 15 MMTPA refinery-cum-petrochem complex slated to be completed by end 2011.
Jamnagar Gujarat 29 Reliance Petroleum Ltd. RPL A 29 MMTPA export-oriented refinery commissioned in Dec 2008.
Vadinar Gujarat 20 Nayara Energy Ltd. Rosneft and Kesani Enterprises First phase expansion includes a 450k/pa polypropylene unit. Long-term expansion includes new PRU (450k tons/pa), polypropylene (450k tons/pa) and MTBE (200k tons/pa) units.

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