“Production from overseas assets in FY21 was 13.039 mmtep (million metric tonnes of oil equivalent). Oil production was 8.510 mmt (million metric tons), 12.8% less from FY20 production, and gas production was 4.53 billion cubic meters (billion meters cubes), 13.3% lower from fiscal year 20, ”Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. (ONGC), Chairman and CEO Subhash Kumar said at the annual shareholders meeting on Friday.

“The decrease in production is mainly due to the fact that projects in Russia, UAE and Azerbaijan were affected by meeting production cuts agreed by host governments of the Opec + group of countries. The geopolitical situation has affected two projects in Venezuela, namely Sancristobal and Carabobo-1, ”Kumar said.

OVL, the foreign arm of ONGC, continued to invest in oil and gas assets abroad to support India’s energy security. It suffered setbacks, however, in its $ 2.1 billion acquisition of the Siberian fields from Imperial Energy Corp. Plc.

He is also awaiting the past due dividends from Venezuela’s San Cristobal oil exploration project, while fighting an arbitration case with the Sudanese government to recover around $ 400 million in unpaid oil royalties.

ONGC’s stand-alone production for the fiscal year ended March 31 was 42.4 million metric tonnes of oil and gas oil equivalent.

“The production of crude oil, including the production of the joint venture, was 22.5 mmt,” Kumar said, adding that the production of natural gas, including that of the joint venture, was 22.816 billion m3. Compared to the previous year, however, gas production increased by 20.23%, according to the monthly production report of the Ministry of Oil and Natural Gas.

“As a result of the covid-19 epidemic, global demand for oil has fallen to an all-time high. Much of the loss has already been recouped, however, from a low of 78.5 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) in April 2020 to 94.7 million bpd in April 2021. Demand is expected to exceed the levels of before the pandemic in 2022, according to the IEA (International Energy Agency), “Kumar said.

This comes in the context of India’s spending ??12,000 billion per year to meet its energy needs. India is particularly vulnerable to changes in crude oil prices, as any increase in world prices can affect its import bill, fuel inflation and inflate its trade deficit.

The country spent $ 101.4 billion on crude oil imports in 2019-2020 and $ 111.9 billion in 2018-2019.