Oil and Gas Industry in India is a 110 billion USD industry (as in March ‘2007). The India oil & gas demand ranks it sixth in the world. Nearly 70% of the petroleum oil requirements of India are met by the imports. This is a matter of concern for the Indian Government as it might lead to oil crisis in India. To tackle this, large-scale oil and gas exploration and drilling is being undertaken.
OIL & GAS INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
The oil and gas history in India dates back to 1867, with the discovery of oil deposits in Makum, near Margherita, Assam. The oil and gas sector in India has since witnessed the birth of numerous oil and gas companies. In India, the oil and gas industry jobs attract huge labor force. With the inset of bigger players into the oil & gas sector in India engaging in mass oil & gas production, the oil & gas prices have been revised although still in the unaffordable segment for many.
A rapid increase is also seen in the demand of oil & gas exploration and drilling equipment and services. The oil & gas fields both onshore and offshore provides mass employment opportunities and also contribute in a wholesome way in increasing the oil & gas reserves of India. Despite of new finds in oil & gas wells, increase in the drilling operations, advancement in oil extraction methods, pumps and machine and other equipments and technology, the costs have not come down. The oil & gas prices are still a matter of utmost concern for the Government of India.
OIL & GAS COMPANIES IN INDIA
Public Sector Undertakings (PSU’s):
- ONGC – Oil & Natural Gas Corp (exploration and production)
- OIL – Oil India Limited (exploration & production)
- IOC – Indian Oil Corporation (refining & marketing)
- BPCL – Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (refining and marketing)
- HPCL – Hindustan Petroleum (refining & marketing)
- GSPC – Gujarat State Petroleum Corp
Private Oil & Gas companies in India
- RIL – Reliance Industries Limited (Indian Oil & gas company)
- ESSAR (Indian Oil & Gas company)
- Cairns Energy India
- BG energy
- Niko (upstream exploration & production)
- Chevron Oil Limited
- Shell Oil
- BP
- Total (downstream exploration & production, chemicals)
An achievement that deserves mention here is that five of the Indian oil & gas companies are listed in Global Fortune 500.
OIL & GAS REFINING IN INDIA
India oil refining capacity is the sixth largest in the world. India is soon emerging as a leading exporter of refined petroleum products in the world. India has around 6000 Kms of product pipelines along with over 34, 600 Government of India (GOI) owned retail outlets.
Oil refining is an industrial process of processing crude oil into petroleum products that have wider usage. The petroleum products obtained by oil refining are Gasoline or Petrol, Kerosene, Diesel, Fuel Oil, Asphalt, Paraffin Wax, Lubricating Oil, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) etc. These products by the oil & gas exploration and production companies in India have a wide market world over.
INDIA OIL & GAS INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
An analysis report of the oil & gas industry in India shows the stagnation in the current oil production and extraction processes diverting towards deepwater offshore drilling for finding newer oil & gas reserves where the drawback is lack of technical expertise in India. Also there’s an acute shortage of skilled labor force, latest drilling equipments and machines.
However, the solutions to these problems can come in the form of foreign collaborations for better technology especially in deepwater drilling and extraction processes. Special training institutes need to be set-up for providing skilled labor for technical exploration services. Foreign collaborations will bring the necessary finance to such projects. Also world-level profession practices like optimum use of the available resources and equipments at the lowest possible costs and proper oil & gas waste regulation methods will pave way for further growth and development of oil & gas industry in India.