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.”

State-owned explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) net profit more than doubled in the June-end quarter fuelled by a more-than-half times increase in net crude price realisations.

The Delhi-headquartered explorer’s net profit rose more than 112% on a year-over-year basis to ₹17,034 crore.

This was led by net crude oil price realisations, that is, the average price an explorer receives for each barrel of oil it sells, increasing 50.4% to $99.45 per barrel.

Gross revenues increased 45.2% on a year-over-year basis to ₹46,460 crore.

ONGC’s standalone production of crude oil and natural gas stayed nearly flat in the reported quarter from the comparable period last year at 4.452 million metric tonnes (MMT) and 4.756 billion cubic metres (BCM).

Oil production stood at 4.683 MMT and natural gas at 4.846 BCM in the comparable period last year.

The explorer although exuded confidence in arresting the production decline on a year-over-year basis.

“The production decline trend is expected to be arrested and progressively reversed through the successful execution of strategic projects such as Daman Upside Development Project, TSP and DSF,” it held.

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) would reserve half of its 1.75 million metric tonnes (MMT) oil storage facility in Mangaluru as strategic storage, Suresh Gopi, Minister of State in the Union Petroleum Ministry told the Upper House on Monday (August 3, 2026).

Mr. Gopi also informed the rest of the capacity would be available for commercial usage.

“ONGC is developing a strategic petroleum reserve facility of 1.75 MMT capacity at Mangaluru. 50% of this storage will be reserved as strategic storage and rest of the capacity will be available to ONGC for commercial operations,” he told Parliament.

The project would be entirely funded by the state-owned explorer.

Separately, Mr. Gopi also told the house of elders that India’s current storage capacity for crude oil and petroleum products can meet 74 days of its net crude import requirements.

He also stated that the government had chalked plans to build storage capacity of 6.5 MMT.

This is inclusive of 4 MMT capacity in Odisha’s Chandikhol, Odisha and Karnataka’s Padur.

Specifically, on Chandikhol, he stated, “The estimated project cost is about ₹9,000 crores. The draft RFP and Concession Agreement for the project are being finalized.”

Further expanding on their previous technical services collaboration for Mumbai High, state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) appointed English oil major BP as their technical services provider (TSP) for their overall Western Offshore Basin.

The basin — which comprises of 43 blocks — is among the most important avenues for ONGC. About 60% of oil and 70% of ONGC’s gas output originates from Western Offshore.

Under the latest agreement, the English oil major would be working with ONGC to identify focussed interventions across reservoirs, wells and production facilities.

“The collaboration will seek to moderate natural production decline, improve hydrocarbon recovery and operational efficiency, and support sustained production growth,” read a statement from ONGC.

The New Delhi-headquartered explorer would retain complete ownership and control of the assets.

Further, under the terms of the contract, BP would be receiving a fixed fee for the initial two years. This would be followed by a service fee based on the revenue generated from the net incremental production from the basin with their interventions.

The agreement further expands on the technical services contract signed by the two oil majors for Mumbai High in February last year.

Seeking to strengthen their petrochemical business, state-owned explorer ONGC approved the formation of a joint venture company with subsidiaries Mangalore Refinery Pvt Ltd (MRPL) and ONGC Petro additions Ltd (OPaL), integrating petrochemical marketing division of the companies, it informed bourses on Monday (April 27, 2026).

ONGC would hold 50% stake in the joint venture, with rest being equally divided among the two subsidiaries.

State-owned explorer ONGC Wednesday announced the formal end of the force majeure of the Area 1 LNG project in Mozambique. It informed that the consortium of the 13.12 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) project in North Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado Province, has notified the Mozambique government about the same.

“Withdrawal of the force majeure enables construction activities to restart for early completion of project,” it stated.

The construction of the LNG project in the East African country, which started in 2019, was forced to halt in April 2021 following militant attacks in northern region of the country. The operator of the project, French energy major TotalEnergies SE lifted the forced majeure four years later in October this year after an improvement in the security situation. Indian refiner Bharat Petroleum had indicated earlier this week about consortium partners having agreed to lift the forced majeure.

The overseas arm of the exploration and production company, ONGC Videsh holds 16% interest in the project through its subsidiaries ONGC Videsh Rovuma Limited (OVRL) and Beas Rovuma Energy Mozambique Limited (BREML). The French energy major as the operator of the project through their wholly owned subsidiary owns 26.5% participating interest. Among others, Bharat Petroleum-subsidiary Bharat PetroResources, through its Amsterdam-based arm, holds a 10% participating interest.

Oil and Natural Gas Company (ONGC) is seeking to reduce 15% costs organisation-wide via varied optimisation measures, Director for Production Pankaj Kumar told reporters in New Delhi. Mr. Kumar enumerated primary areas of focus would entail addressing logistical costs alongside enhancing efficiency and project execution. The state-owned explorer expects oil prices to remain between $60-65/barrel for the next two-three years, barring “few ups and downs”, and aspires to prepare itself accordingly. The measures would look to optimise both operational costs and capital expenditures, which totals to approx. ₹60,000 crore, thus, translating to savings of about ₹9,300 crore.

Increasing efficiency

Mr. Kumar underlined that logistics was among the “bigger components” of costs which extends to both drilling as well as surface operations. Listing measures in the realm, among other things, the director for production stated that ONGC would be particularly looking to scale the Pipavav Supply Base in Gujarat.

“Almost 20% of the sailing will move to Pipavav, reason being the whole of Tapti Daman [block] area and the North of Mumbai [block] is closer to the Pipavav base,” he explained, adding, “The turnaround time becomes faster, the vessel takes less time and we will save fuel. Thus, we will be able to improve our efficiency.” Mr. Kumar stated that ONGC would also look to explore placing half their sailings through Pipavav supply base.

The company expects scaling up at the base would help augur more than ₹1,000 crore in savings.

Cost of execution

The senior ONGC executive stated that the state-owned explorer also worked to alter tangible aspects of drilling. According to him, this resulted in cost benefits of “about 25%”. In terms of project execution, Mr Kumar stated the company also altered its strategy in the offshore area. Offshore operations are generally more expensive than onshore operation owing to advanced engineering and logistical costs, among other things. Poignant to also note, in a broader context, ONGC has also endowed focus on addressing decline in production from their mature fields.

Separately, reflecting on a prioritised approach going forward, Mr Kumar stated, “ONGC drilled some 578 rigs last year. When we analysed those rigs, we also deliberated if all the wells are economically good or not. We thought why don’t we prioritise [accordingly].”

Green energy push

In response to a query from The Hindu about expanding renewable energy to undercut geopolitical currents, Mr. Kumar said ONGC would be looking at in-house expansion alongside acquisitions. The company aspires to possess 10GW of renewable capacity by 2030.

State-owned explorer Oil and Natural Gas Company (ONGC) informed Tuesday that the Vijayawada GST division has imposed a penalty of approx. ₹60 lakh in lieu of their alleged underpayment of special additional excise duty (SAED). This tax demand accrues to their Rajahmundry asset in Andhra Pradesh and for clearances effected in July 2022. It informed the exchanges that the company would be reviewing the order and shall file an appeal within the prescribed time limits. Additionally, it stated considering the size and scale of their operation, the impact “is not considered significant”.

Issues relating to non-reconciliation

The oil explorer underlined the primary issue relates to non-reconciliation of the tax demand for the crude oil it had produced and that of a separate production enhancement contractor (PEC) during the period. For perspective, the latter relates to agreements wherein the contractor is required to raise output and enhance recovery from depleting or mature oil fields.

According to ONGC, it had already paid ₹42 lakh for the quantity it had produced itself and sought exemption of the approx. ₹18 lakh, for the quantity produced by the contractor, as per relevant provisions back then. However, the state-owned explorer stated, the tax authorities “disregarded the payment” made towards their own production underlining that the explorer paid it to a different zonal division of the excise department. Thus, a case of non-reconciliation.

Additionally, the company informed that the exemption benefit too has been denied, treating ONGC as the manufacturer for the quantity of the PEC as well.

Describing the demand as “unsustainable”, it said, “There is neither any short payment of duty nor any suppression or intent to evade duty; hence, the demand on account of interest and penalty is not sustainable.”

ONGC’s Rajahmundry Asset is spread across four districts of Andhra Pradesh, namely, Krishna, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Konaseema, East Godavari & West Godavari.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) is set to invest ₹8,110 crore for onshore development and production of oil and gas from 172 wells in eight PML (petroleum mining lease) blocks in Andhra Pradesh.

A committee under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has recommended Environmental Clearance for the project in a meeting held last month.

“The estimated project cost is ₹8110 crore. Capital cost of EMP (Environment Management Plan) would be Rs. 172 crore and recurring cost for EMP would be ₹91.16 Crores per annum. Industry proposes to allocate Rs. 11 crores for commitments made in Public Hearing,” Expert Appraisal Committee said in the minutes of the meeting.

While recommending the EC, the committee directed the ONGC to comply with all the environmental protection measures and safeguards proposed in the documents submitted to the Ministry.

All the recommendations made in the EIA/EMP in respect of environmental management, and risk mitigation measures relating to the project shall be implemented.

It further said, as committed, no well would be set up within 10 km from the eco-sensitive area of Coringa Wildlife sanctuary as per the NOC issued in May this year, and no pipelines or its part shall be laid in the Forest land/Protected Area without prior permission/approval from the Competent Authority.