Oil Production and Trade in India

The oil reserves of the country are shown in several types of figures such as probable reserves, proven reserves, strategic reserves etc. Probable / Indicated reserves means oil has been sampled and an estimation has been made but the quantity / quality has low level of certainty. Thus, indicated reserves show low level of confidence.

On the other hand, Proven reserves can be recovered from a deposit with a reasonable amount of certainty. Thus, proven reserves indicate the confidence in their production.

Strategic reserves refer to the inventories maintained by the government / industry to tackle any contingency leading to energy crisis.

Oil and Gas Reserves

As per the 2014 data, India’s total proven oil reserves are close to 5,650-5,710 million barrels. In terms of proven oil reserves, India is 24th country in the world. Venezuela and Saudi Arabia are largest countries in terms of proven reserves. In 2014-15, India’s Natural Gas reserves were 1488.73 BCM (Billion Cubic Meter).

Current Production and Import Stats

The crude oil production for the year 2014-15 is at 37.461 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) as against production of 37.788 MMT in 2013-14, showing a decrease of about 0.87%. The reason for decrease are twofold, firstly the natural decline in the old and ageing fields; and secondly, production of crude oil was affected due to less production from Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. Import of Crude Oil during 2014-15 was 189.432 MMT with an oil bill of Rs. 6,87,350 crore.  This implies that 75 per cent of total oil consumption is being met through imports, India’s dependence on imports for petroleum and petroleum products is very high. India continues to be a net importer of Oil. India also exports Petroleum products and with approximately 13.8 % share in the total exports of India, Petroleum remains far below the other products. Petroleum, Crude Oil and other products are India’s largest Import Commodity.

Key Oil / Gas fields of India and their states

India’s oil producing states / UTs are Assam, Tripura, Manipur, West Bengal, Mumbai, Gujarat,  Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Coastal Kerala, Andaman & Nicobar.  Main oil / gas fields are located in below regions:

• Gujarat – Cambay , Kutch
• Assam – Upper Assam, Amguri,
• Rajasthan -Jodhpur, Barmer, Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Naguar
• Andhra Pradesh: Krishna Godawari Basin
• Tamil Nadu – Cauvery Basin
• Odisha – Mahanadi Basin
• Maharastra – Mumbai Offshore
• Arunachal Pradesh – Kharsang Oil Field
• Madhya Pradesh – Sohagpur
• Jharkhand – Jharia, Bokaro
• West Bengal – Ranigunj

Mumbai High

Mumbai High is an offshore oilfield 160 kilometers off the coast of Mumbai and under the operations of ONGC. First offshore well was shrunk here in 1974.

Mangla Area

Mangla Area is located on RJ-ON-90-1 (the Rajasthan Block) in Barmer district of Rajasthan. It is being operated by Ciarn Energy and is supposed to have 3.6 billion barrels of oil.

KG D6

D-6 block in the Krishna Godawari basin is in Andhra Pradesh and here Reliance Industries discovered the biggest natural gas reserves in India in 2002.

Oil Refineries in India

Some of important refineries of India are as follows:

• Barauni Refinery, Bihar: Located in Bihar and was built in 1964 with the help of USSR.
• Bongaigaon Refinery, Assam : Located at Bongaigaon, Assam. Bongaigaon Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (BRPL) is a subsidiary of IndianOil(IOC).
• Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited: It has two refineries viz. Manali Refinery Chennai and Nagapattinam refinery in Cauvery Basin.
• Digboi Refinery, Assam: This is oldest refinery and was set up in 1901 in Digboi , Assam. It was took over later by IOC.
• Essar Refinery, Gujarat : Essar Refinery is under commissioning at Vadinar, Gujarat. It is a private sector refinery under Essar Group.
• Gujarat Refinery, Gujarat : Located near Baroda Gujarat and is largest refinery of IOC and largest public sector refinery of India.
• Guwahati Refinery, Assam: Guwahati Refinery is located at Noonmati Assam. It is owned by Indian Oil Corporation.
• Haldia Refinery, West Bengal : Haldia Refinery is located in West Bengal
• Kochi Refineries Ltd (KRL), Kerala : Kochi Refineries Ltd (KRL) is located at Kochi and is owned by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
• Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, Karnataka: Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited is now acquired by ONGC and was set up in 1998.
• Mathura Refinery, Uttar Pradesh: Mathura Refinery is owned by Indian Oil Corporation and is located in Mathura. It was alleged for causing white marble of Taj Mahal to yellow./
• Jamnagar Refinery, Gujarat : The Jamnagar Refinery is owned by Reliance Industries in Jamnagar, Guajarat. It is the largest Greenfield refinery in the world.
• Mumbai Refinery, Maharashtra : Mumbai Refinery is located in Mumbai and was promoted by Esso before being aquired by the Government of India.
• Mumbai Refinery Mahaul. Maharashtra : Mumbai Refinery Mahaul is under Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.(BPCL)
• Panipat Refinery, Haryana : Panipat Refinery belongs to Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.
• Vizag Refinery, Andhra Pradesh: Visakhapatnam Refinery is of HPCL.

Butcher Island

Butcher Island is also known as Jawahar Deep and is off Mumbai Coast. There lies an oil terminal used by the port authorities to offload it from oil tankers.