ONGC Partners with BP to Enhance Output at its Largest Oil Field

09 Jan 2025 CW Team

India's leading explorer, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), announced that energy giant BP would serve as a technical service provider to enhance oil and gas production from the Mumbai High field, the country's largest producing field located off its west coast.

BP has committed to increasing oil and gas production from the Mumbai High field, discovered in 1974, by up to 60%. The field, which peaked at 471,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil in March 1985, had seen its output decline to approximately 134,000 bpd by April 2024, as noted in a tender document issued last year.

India, the world's third-largest oil importer and consumer, has been striving to boost its stagnant oil and gas production. In June 2024, the government revealed that ONGC was exploring a technical partnership with a global oil major to achieve this goal. BP's board also met with India's Oil Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri, in September 2024 to discuss collaboration.

The country has been encouraging foreign companies to participate in its exploration programs, with Puri emphasising this push last year. BP, leveraging its expertise in optimising mature fields, will now assist in enhancing production at Mumbai High.

In a statement, BP expressed optimism about the partnership, highlighting its extensive experience in improving recovery and performance from mature fields globally as a key asset in unlocking Mumbai High's potential.

Additionally, BP, in collaboration with Reliance Industries, operates 1,900 fuel retail stations across India and produces oil and gas from a deepwater block in the Krishna-Godavari basin on the country's east coast. The Reliance-BP partnership has also joined forces with ONGC to bid for exploration rights for an offshore block in India.

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