ONGC expects oil plus gas production of 39 MMTOE this fiscal, 40 MMTOE next year

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) expects cumulative oil plus gas production to scale 39 million metric tonnes (MMT) in the ongoing fiscal and 40 MMT in FY 2028, Anupam Agarwal, Director (Finance) at the state-owned explorer told analysts in a post-results call on Tuesday (August 4, 2026).

“Last year, our oil plus gas standalone production was in the range of 38.87 million metric tonnes of oil equivalent (MMTOE). This year we expect to reach about 39 MMT this year. The upside will come mainly from gas,” he stated, adding separately, “Next year, another almost 1 MMTOE of oil and gas gain will be there in FY 2027-28.”

Conducive to pursue deepwater exploration

Responding to a query, Mr. Agarwal stated that with oil prices expected to hover at about $75 per barrel, pursuing deepwater exploration would be lucrative and in turn, further the country’s energy security in the backdrop of the post West Asia conflict.

“Now, with the Hormuz crisis, there is a security layer which is coming at the baseline and we believe it [oil prices] would be $75 per barrel in the long run,” he stated.

Separately, he elaborated, “At $60-65 [per barrel prices], many of the deepwater [exploration] is high-risk, high-reward game, and the size of the reservoir is such that the economics must be very good to develop them. So, maybe some of the fields might not have good to explore at $60-65 [per barrel price regime] but at $75 [per barrel] they would be lucrative also and important for energy security.”

Mr. Agarwal also stated that the explorer is seeing positive signs for its overseas arm ONGC Videsh’s projects in Venezuela’s San Cristobal and Carabobo-1.

“Now we have full freedom to work on Venezuela project because earlier we were restricting our operations there because of the sanction-related risk. Those risks are behind us,” he stated, adding separately, “We believe very soon we will see some positive development, the new agreement signed, and we [are] taking over the operatorship for some of those projects from PDVSA.”