MINISTER OF PETROLEUM & NATURAL GAS (SHRI MURLI DEORA)
(a) to (e): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) to (e) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION
NO. 306 TO BE ANSWERED ON 10.12.2009 REG. IMPORT OF CRUDE OIL.
(a) The country’s dependence on imports for meeting its crude oil requirements is
more than 70%.
(b) & (c) The rise in import of crude oil during the last five years is given in
the Table below.
Year Qty. (MMT#)
2004-05 95.9
2005-06 99.4
2006-07 111.5
2007-08 121.7
2008-09 (Prov.) 132.8
#MMT – Million metric tonne
(d) & (e) Several measures have been taken to accelerate hydrocarbon exploration
and production :
i. Carving out more and more areas for exploration for offer under various
rounds of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) and Coal Bed Methane Policy (CBM).
So far 203 Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) have been signed under NELP which have
resulted in 73 oil & gas discoveries. As regards production of crude oil from NELP
blocks, production has commenced from KG-DWN-98/3 and CB-ONN-2000/1 blocks.
ii. Quicker development of discovered reserves for enabling commencement of
production. The Mangala Oil field in Barmer District of Rajasthan, which has
commenced production in August, 2009, is projected to produce 2.2 Million Tonne
(MMT) of crude oil during the current financial year. At peak production, it is
expected to produce 8.9 MMT per annum of crude oil during 2011-12, which will account
for about 25% of the total domestic crude oil production, and reduce the country’s
crude oil import bill by about 8%, at current prices.
iii. Use of stimulation techniques for increasing production from existing fields.
iv. Arresting decline from ageing fields by application of Enhanced Oil Recovery
(EOR)/Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) techniques for increasing recovery factor from
existing fields.
v. Acquisition of exploration acreages and producing properties overseas to
bring in equity oil. ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) produced 8.77 MMT of oil and oil
equivalent gas during 2008-09 from its producing assets abroad.
The increase in the country’s refining capacity from about 70 MMTPA as of 01.04.1999
to about 179 MMTPA presently has necessitated greater imports of crude oil.The
increase in the country’s refining capacity, coupled with a steadily rising domestic
demand, is not likely to bring down the country’s oil import dependence significantly.
