Indian E&P companies struggling to meet targets

Despite huge efforts by India’s government to accelerate crude production, India’s dependency shows no sign of easing

India’s domestic crude output has struggled over the past few years despite the authorities’ efforts to reduce the country’s import dependence. Two state-owned and two private operators could manage to produce only 29.4mt of crude for the financial year ending 31 March, showing little change from the 29.2mt produced in 2022–23. Meanwhile, a slight increase in overall consumption led to import dependence increasing to 87.7% in 2023–24 from 87.4% in the previous year. The government has been pressuring state-owned oil explorers Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL) to increase domestic output to help insulate the country more from price and supply shocks of the k