Oil India aims to spend Rs 6,000 crore in the exploration and production of oil and gas in the financial year 2024-25, Harish Madhav, the company’s director of finance, said in an interview.
“For the next financial year, the investment target is close to Rs 6,000 crore. Depending on the requirement, we can invest more,” Madhav said on the sidelines of the India Energy Week.
The company also sees its annual production of oil growing to 4 million tonne in FY25. Oil India’s annual production growth rate has been increasing by 4.5-5% annually in the last few years.
“We are working on Mahanadi, Kerala-Konkan, Kakinada, we are expecting some crude oil and gas in some of the areas. So once we get it, our oil production will go further,” the company’s director of operations, Pankaj Kumar Goswami, said.
The company had recently won one more block in the eighth bidding round under the Open Acreage Licensing Programme.
The government has lately put up offshore acreage exceeding 1 million square kilometre under the bidding for exploration and production which was not allowed so far.
The company had earlier said that it expects to start the drilling operations in the Andaman and Nicobar islands by the third quarter of FY25.
Moreover, Oil India is also exploring blocks overseas in Bangladesh and Gabon and expects the drilling operations to commence in the next two or three months.
The director, finance, also informed that the company is seeking potential partners to invest in its offshore business and will be conducting a roadshow in Abu Dhabi on February 28-29 for the same.
“We are inviting partners for our offshore business in both technical and investment side,” the director, finance, said. “Offshore is a very high investment area and we are exploring the possibilities of a tie up,” he added.
Addressing the current scenario in the global oil market, the company said that it is not affected by oil price movement so far and see a likewise growth in the quarter under review with its realisations remaining range-bound.
“We are currently not affected by the oil price movement. With the windfall tax, special additional excise duty, our realisations remain more or less range bound at about $75 per barrel,” Madhav said.
Source: The Financial Express
