ONGC’s share in India’s oil & gas production rises despite decline in output. Here’s how

• ONGC's share in India's total crude oil production was 61.7 percent in 2018-19, 64.4 percent in 2019-20, and 66.5 percent in 2020-21
• ONGC's crude oil production has gone down from 21.111 MMT in 2018-19 to 20.714 MMT in 2019-20 and 20.273 MMT in 2020-21

New Delhi: State-run Oil & Natural Gas Corporation's (ONGC) share in India's overall crude oil and gas production has gone up in the last three years, data shared by Minister of State (MoS) for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameswar Teli in the Lok Sabha showed. In a written response to a question raised in the Lower House of Parliament, Teli said that ONGC's share in India's total crude oil production was 61.7 percent in 2018-19, 64.4 percent in 2019-20, and 66.5 percent in 2020-21. For 2021-22, data up to June showed that ONGC's share in the overall production figure is at 65.3 percent so far. 

ONGC's share in India's gas production has also increased

According to the data shared by the minister, the share of ONGC in India's natural gas production was at 75.3 percent in 2018-19, 76.5 percent in 2019-20 and 77.1 percent in 2020-21. Data up to June showed that currently, ONGC's share in the overall natural gas production is 62.5 percent.

ONGC's production figures have declined

The increase in ONGC's share in the crude oil and gas production pie comes even as there has been a steady decline in ONGC's own production from its ageing fields. For crude oil, ONGC's production has gone down from 21.111 MMT in 2018-19 to 20.714 MMT in 2019-20 and 20.273 MMT in 2020-21. The country's total crude oil production was 34.203 MMT in 2018-19, 32.169 MMT in 2019-20 and 30.494 MMT in 2020-21. 

Similarly for natural gas, ONGC's output figures have declined steadily from 24,747 MMSCM in 2018-19, 23,853 MMSCM in 2019-20 to 22,096 MMSCM in 2020-21. This compared with India's overall natural gas production figures of 32,873 MMSCM in 2018-19, 31,180 MMSCM in 2019-20 and 28,672 MMSCM in 2020-21.

Figures explained

The increase in share against a consecutive decline in production figures shows that the increase comes primarily because the largest share of India's crude oil and gas production is controlled by ONGC, which is India's largest exploration and production company in the sector, followed by Oil India Limited (OIL). The decline in crude oil production in India has been witnessed across the public and the private sector, as shown by data sourced from the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC). However, since ONGC operates the largest share of India's oil reserves, its share in the pie has increased.  

For natural gas, PPAC data shows a zig-zag rise and decline in production on the part of the two state-run firms. However, since here too, most of the production is controlled by ONGC, the company's share in India's overall natural gas production has increased over the years. ONGC's natural gas production is, however, expected to improve manifold with KG Basin fields commencing production. And in tandem, natural gas production from the private sector is also expected to improve FY 2021-22 onwards as two of Reliance Industries' fields in the KG Basin have already started production. Therefore, the share of public sector and the private sector in India's overall natural gas production may look very different in the next financial year.

ONGC restructuring plan

The government is now seeking to bring in diversity into the E&P sector by inviting newer private players. The Centre has declared its intention on several occasions to hand over ONGC's idle, unmonetised discoveries to private players. At a recent investors' meet for Discovered Small Fields (DSF) round-3 auction, Petroleum Secretary Tarun Kapoor had said that the government is keen on seeing more investors emerge from among the group and compete with ONGC.

In order to increase the production of crude oil and gas, the government has prepared a restructuring plan under which it has asked ONGC to redevelop existing natural matured fields, develop new small/marginal fields through cluster development, monetise nomination /NELP discoveries, enhance recovery factor of mature fields by including IOR and EOR technologies, bring field-specific production enhancement model including farm out and Joint Venture/Technical Service Model and develop discoveries made in KG Basin. Teli said that ONGC has planned an investment of Rs 10,392 crore during 2021-22. 

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