India’s oil and gas production between 2023-2032 is expected to achieve a mid-decade peak around 2027, primarily due to Krishna Godavari (KG)-Basin projects operated by Reliance Industries Limited and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), according to S&P Global Commodities. These are old discoveries which have been in development for a while and coming online during 2023. These projects include Cluster 2A in KG-DWN-98/2 and the Dhirubhai 55 (MJ) field.
“The major growth area is gas, again led by KG Basin discoveries being operationalized. However, considering the heightened maturity of India’s existing basins, new basin-opening initiatives need to bear fruit and quickly, which is a big ask,” said Mansi Anand, senior research analyst at S&P Global.
The KG-Basin is a petroliferous margin basin and is spread over more than 50,000 square kilometres in the Krishna rriver and Godavari river basins in Andhra Pradesh. The site is known for the D-6 block where Reliance Industries discovered the biggest natural gas reserves in India in 2003. KG inland and offshore basins have proven to be major prospects of unconventional tight oil and tight gas reserves from conducted field studies.
Recently, petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri said at an award function organized by the Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry that India will need to pursue an aggressive upstream policy to ensure energy security as the bulk of the demand will come from the oil and gas sector in the foreseeable future, despite the transition to cleaner fuels changing the energy landscape.
While India is undertaking an ambitious journey of energy transition which should culminate in the country achieving “net-zero carbon” by 2070, it is also imperative that accessibility and affordability aspects of energy remain intact. added Puri.
The oil ministry last June said India would allow operators to sell locally produced crude in the domestic market without restrictions. Under the previous policy, the operator of a field could not directly sell locally produced crude into the market and needed government permission for any sale of crude and condensate within the country. But under the new policy, the government would cease its function of allocating domestic crude and condensate output.
Highlighting plans on clean and green energy, Puri said that the government was working on a four-pronged strategy — diversification of supplies, an increase of alternate energy sources like biofuels, ethanol, compressed biogas, increasing the E&P footprint, and pursuing the adoption of EVs and hydrogen.
“As a developing nation, we are importing 85 per cent of our oil demand and close to 50 per cent of our demand for natural gas. Therefore, we are acutely aware of the need for a just and stable energy transition,” said Puri.
He said India had one of the largest synchronous grids in the world, capable of handling intermittent renewable energy. The government also enacted a green hydrogen policy with a production target of 5 million metric tonnes by 2030, Puri added.
Meanwhile, India’s oil demand rose 9 per cent year on year to 20.03 million mt, or 5.1 million b/d, in May, according to data by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell. Over the cumulative January-May period, the demand for diesel, petrol and jet fuel rose by 8.4 per cent, 8.7 per cent, and 27.9 per cent year on year, respectively.
Source: Livemint