New Delhi: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) expects a USD 10.3 billion revenue boost from increased oil and gas production, achieved through a partnership with UK's BP in the Mumbai High field.
In a statement, ONGC said it has hired BP Exploration (Alpha) Ltd, a wholly-owned step-down subsidiary of BP Plc, as the technical service provider (TSP) for raising production from the Mumbai High oil and gas field in the Arabian Sea.
"TSP has indicated a substantial potential increase of approximately 44 percent in crude oil (from baseline production of 45.47 million tonnes to 65.41 million tonnes) and approximately 89 per cent increase in gas production (from 24.94 billion cubic metres to 47.22 billion cubic metres) for the ten-year contract period," it said.
In terms of oil and oil equivalent gas, the increase works out to 60 per cent (from 70.40 million tonnes of oil equivalent to 112.63 million tonnes of oil equivalent).
"The increase is expected to be visible from FY26 (April 2025 to March 2026 financial year) with full-scale visibility expected from FY28 (April 2027 to March 2028 fiscal). This incremental production is expected to generate additional oil and gas revenue (net of levies) of up to USD 10.30 billion and incremental contribution to government exchequer by way of royalty, cess and other levies up to the tune of USD 5 billion," the statement said.
ONGC had, in June last year, floated a tender seeking foreign partners to reverse declining output at its flagship Mumbai High fields, offering a share of revenue from incremental production plus a fixed fee but not any equity stake.
BP and Royal Dutch Shell put in an Expression of Interest (EOI) at the close of the tender in September.
"Through this ICB tender, ONGC invited international operators with proven technical expertise, financial strength, and a track record in similar projects. All the major international oil companies were invited to participate. Shell and BP expressed their interest and participated in the pre-bid process, and the final bid was submitted by BP," the statement added.
Later, BP, in a statement, said as the TSP, it will conduct a comprehensive review of the field's performance and identify improvements as well as implement suitable technological interventions and practices for improving production and recovery from this important national resource.
The Mumbai High field accounts for almost 25 per cent of India's production. The field is estimated to have a balance reserve of 80 million tonnes (610 million barrels) of oil and over 40 bcm of gas.
"BP will serve in an advisory role to ONGC identifying recovery technologies and practices with the aim of stabilising production and reversing the decline, returning production from this nationally important oilfield to a strong growth path," it said.
The global major brings extensive experience in the management of many of the world's giant oil fields, and application to Mumbai High will include well work and system modelling optimisations, reservoir management, seismic technology, access to unconventional reservoirs through fracturing technology and IOR/EOR leading to long term production delivery by 2035.
BP India head Kartikeya Dube said, "We are excited to partner with ONGC and look forward to bringing our international experience and technical expertise to this project. This project further underpins our commitment to exploration and production of oil and gas in India and supports its vision for energy independence and security".
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