Oil India will change the narrative of its production in the next 18 months with ramped up infra, says Ranjit Rath

With the recent government interventions in infrastructure and allocation, Oil India would amp up their production immensely in the next eighteen months, Chairman and Managing Director Ranjit Rath told The Hindu.

“Government has authorised the [expansion of] Duliajan feeder line so that will mean more gas can be evacuated,” Mr. Rath stated, adding, “Further, the government has also authorised new well gas can be given of up to 1.5 million standard cubic metres to Numaligarh refinery that will help scale up from current production level of 8 million standard cubic metre to 13 million standard cubic metre.”

Thus, with no infrastructural constraint in sight, Mr. Rath mentioned, “Now, in the next eighteen months we will change the narrative [about OIL’s production].”

The Oil India chief also mentioned that the feeder line would also help evacuate increased gas out of associated wells, that is, wells wherein both oil and gas are present.

Thus, the safe evacuation facility ensures the gas in such wells ensures that both oil and gas can be captured without losing any for flaring.

Eyeing 100 wells in the current fiscal year

Further, on the exploration front, Mr. Rath told The Hindu that they are eyeing to drill one hundred wells in the ongoing financial year, up from 74 wells they did in FY 2025-26.

The explorer-producer is seeking to allocate ₹10,000 crore in capital expenditures this fiscal, up from about ₹8,900 crore it spent last year.

The wells would span across both onshore and offshore basins.

“The number would include drilling activities in northeastern India, in Gujarat’s Cambay Basin, Baghwala and Dandewala in Rajasthan, the second well in Kerala-Konkan basin alongside Andaman-Nicobar,” he stated.

On the international frontier, Mr. Rath also told The Hindu, with the force majeure withdrawn from the Area 1 LNG project in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, the explorer-producer expects gas production to commence by the “end of 2028 or early 2029”.

Oil India is part of a consortium in the East African country which is operated by French energy major TotalEnergies SE. The project was forced to pause April 2021 following militant attacks in the northern region of the country. It was only lifted November last year.

‘In talks with international operators for joint bidding in OALP-X, XI’

Mr. Rath said Oil India conducted petroleum system modelling studies as part of their strategy to choose the blocks to bid for in the upcoming rounds of Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP), and to “de-risk” the potential explorations.

Responding to a query about their bidding strategy in the upcoming rounds, that is, rounds ten and eleven, Mr. Rath stated they were discussions with international energy companies for joint bidding.

“We already have support from the [Indian] government with the Samudra Manthan program, and we will get further support from international oil majors in terms of technical collaborations,” he stated, adding, “For this reason, we are keenly looking at OALP-X and XI and discussing with international oil companies for a technology collaboration. I am hopeful we should be able to do something.”