Cairn sees deepwater key to boosting India’s energy security

Indian E&P company wants to take domestic production to a new horizon, given the amount of unexplored opportunities

India’s largest private E&P company, Vedanta Group’s Cairn Oil & Gas, is entering deeper waters in search for petroleum liquids as the country pivots towards enhancing domestic production capacity. Amid growing geopolitical uncertainty and the potential for a trade war, Cairn CFO Hitesh Vaid told Petroleum Economist in an interview that “energy security is key to India’s development”. “Our economy and population is growing; that is why energy demand is growing—and there is a large amount of imports required,” he said, noting that India imports around 90% of its crude oil requirements. “Given what is going on in the world, you do not want to rely on energy from anywhere else,” he adde