Oil India To Start Drilling In Andaman Offshores As Part Of Exploration Efforts

Oil India’s Chairman and Managing Director, Ranjit Rath, said that the state-owned company is going to commence drilling activities in Andaman and Nicobar offshore waters, as part of its exploration efforts.

Asked about the volatility in crude oil prices and how Oil India looks at it, the CMD said they always are for stability as that helps plan exploration efforts. He also added that oil prices are something which is governed by a variety of factors, including geopolitics.

"One of them is of course demand and supply and you would appreciate that the geopolitical situation across the globe has a major role to play. Therefore, while I would not like to speculate any number," the CMD said.

"We would like to see that there is stability in terms of the oil prices because that helps us to plan our exploration efforts and that also helps us have a line of sight in terms of our efforts towards offshore exploration as we have already taken a leap of faith and we are going to commence our drilling activities in Andaman and Nicobar offshore waters," he told ANI after the company held its Annual General Meeting on Sunday.

Oil India last year was accorded the Maharatna status. In 2023-24, the state-owned companies saw 5.5 per cent to 6 per cent growth in terms of oil and gas production, the CMD said.

"And that actually happened on the ride of 61 number of drilling, that is highest ever, 228 number of workovers, that is highest ever. And we also recorded highest ever EBITDA of about Rs 11,600 crore," he added.

"And all this happened with our concerted strategy to enhance our exploration efforts and enhance our production efforts also. And going forward, we have got an ambitious plan, and we have given ourselves a target of about 4 million metric tons of crude oil production and 5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas. So we see that there are a lot of prospects," said the CMD.

OIL held its 65th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Saturday. The CMD addressed the shareholders of the company and acknowledged their continuous trust and investment in the company.

The CMD shared that OIL is pursuing a stagewise exploration campaign wherein drilling activities are interspersed with supplementary seismic acquisition, processing and interpretation (API). The year marked a significant achievement with the highest-ever drilling a total of 61 wells including 17 exploratory and 44 development wells during 2023-24, the highest since inception.

On the production front, CMD Rath said that efforts are underway to enhance the current recovery of the Hydrocarbon resources from deeper horizons through replacement and infill development wells.

During the AGM, he reaffirmed OIL's commitment to achieving Net Zero by 2040, with plans to expand its non-fossil fuel energy portfolio focusing on solar, wind, geothermal, green hydrogen and compressed biogas. (ANI)