India plans to conduct large-scale domestic exploration and increase oil refining capacity to reduce critical dependence on imported supplies.
Points of attention
- India plans to invest up to $100 billion in domestic exploration and expand oil refining capacity to 6 million barrels per day by 2030.
- The country aims to reduce its dependence on imported oil supplies, currently covering 85-88% of domestic oil consumption.
- India's strategy includes exploring new oil production areas like deepwater and shale formations to boost domestic oil production.
India plans to increase oil refining capacity
This was reported by the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.
The Indian government has announced plans to invest up to $100 billion in domestic exploration and increase oil refining capacity to 6 million barrels per day by 2030. The initiative aims to strengthen the country's energy security and reduce dependence on imports, which currently cover 85-88% of domestic oil consumption.
India's energy balance remains structurally unbalanced: with production of about 0.55–0.6 million barrels per day (bpd), domestic demand exceeds 5 million bpd, which means that domestic resources meet less than 12% of needs. Under these conditions, the country's oil industry is oriented towards a large refining hub model — state-owned and private refineries earn money by refining relatively cheap imported oil with subsequent re-export of petroleum products.
After 2023, India actively purchased Russian oil at a discount, which ensured record refining profitability and supported high GDP growth rates of about 7%.
The strategy for increasing the domestic resource base involves opening up for geological exploration about 1 million sq. km of territories previously restricted for commercial exploration, in particular certain offshore areas and border areas. It is also planned to develop the deep-water shelf, primarily in the Krishna-Godavari basin and near the Andaman Islands, which requires drilling at depths of more than 1,000–1,500 m and is associated with high technological risks. A separate direction is the development of shale and tight deposits in partially explored basins, in particular in the state of Rajasthan.
Western experts note that even if these programs are successful, domestic production will not be able to significantly replace imports and will rather serve as a limited "safety cushion." The higher cost of Indian oil, the long development cycle of fields (7–12 years), and rapid demand growth mean that the country will remain critically dependent on imported supplies for the next 5–7 years.
