India’s natural gas production fell 1.43% in September
India’s natural gas production fell 1.43 per cent to 2,684 Million Standard Cubic Meter (MMSCM) in September mainly due to decline in production from fields operated by state-owned Oil India and private or Joint Venture operators, fresh data from the oil ministry showed. The country produced 2,723 MMSCM of natural gas in September last year. Cumulatively, gas production declined 0.96 per cent to 16,254 MMSCM in the first six months (April-September) of 2018-2019. ONGC Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), the country’s largest producer of oil and natural gas, witnessed its gas production rise 3.53 per cent to 2,006 MMSCM in September.The increase was attributed to better performance of fields in Andhra Pradesh, Tripura, eastern offshore and western offshore basins. ONGC’s share in the country’s overall gas production in September increased to 74.73 per cent from 71.15 per cent in the same month last year.The company’s gas production in the first six months of the current fiscal increased 2.93 per cent to 12,017.82 MMSCM due to better performance of the same fields. ONGC’s share in gas production during the period increased to 74 per cent from 71.13 per cent in the corresponding period last year.The explorer failed to meet the targeted output of 12,783.81 MMSCM for the six months period due to restriction in production from eastern offshore and less than planned production from WO-16 and B-127 offshore fields due to lack of availability of Mobile Offshore Production Units. Oil India Gas production by Oil India Ltd declined 7.18 per cent to 228 MMSCM in September due to decline in output from the fields in Assam and Rajasthan. The firm’s share in the country’s total gas production declined to 8.50 per cent in September from 9 per cent recorded in the same month last year. Cumulatively, OIL’s production in the first six months of the current fiscal declined 7.80 per cent to 1,365 MMSCM due to loss of production from a few wells in Deohal, Assam. OIL’s share in total output declined to 8.40 per cent in the six months period (April-September 2018) from 9 per cent in the corresponding period last year. PSC fields Natural gas production from fields under Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) operated by private players or Joint Venture companies (JVS) declined 16.63 per cent to 449 MMSCM in September. The decline took place mainly due to under-performance of fields in Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, eastern offshore, western offshore and Coal Bed Methane (CBM) fields in West Bengal.The share of private players or JVs in total production declined to 16.75 per cent during the month from 19.81 per cent recorded in the same month last year.Cumulatively, production by private players and JVs declined 11.83 per cent to 2,871 MMSCM in the first six months of the current financial year (2018-19) from 3,256 MMSCM recorded in the corresponding period a year ago.The decline was attributed to lower output from Panna-Mukta fields due to under-performance of wells and unplanned shutdown; closure of two wells in D1D3 fields; and standstill production from MA field.Coal Bed Methane production also witnessed a decline on the back of under-performance of Sohagpur West CBM block and decline from Raniganj East CBM block due to planned closure of wells. Cumulatively, the share of private players and JVs in the country’s natural gas production declined to 17.66 per cent in the April-September 2018 period from 19.84 per cent in the corresponding period last year.
