Oil India’s roadmap for a sustainable India through operational excellence

Oil India Limited’s Chairman and Managing Director, Ranjit Rath, discusses India’s energy sector, growing demand in the years to come and milestone signings that will contribute to a diversified energy mix.

What role is digital technology playing in improving the efficiency and resilience of existing energy systems?

Digital technology is an enabler for improving efficiency, time and cost-saving in processes like seismic processing, petrophysical analysis, reservoir monitoring, production optimisation, workover prioritisation, business process automation etc. and will make any organisation more agile and future ready. At Oil India Limited (OIL), we identified the trend early and started DRIVE (Digital Readiness for Innovation & Value in E&P) in 2019 as DRIVE 1.0. Many initiatives across the E&P value chain and business processes were identified for implementation, considering:

•    Strategic impact
•    Tangible business values
•    Instilling a digital mindset and work culture across functions
•    Ease of implementation

On the basis of our learnings in Drive 1.0, we have initiated the second iteration of digitalisation under Drive 2.0, and a number of digital initiatives such as digital Oilfields, asset lifecycle management, intelligent well planning & scheduling, digital twins for facilities, smart procurement & analytics, G&G analytics using GenAI, command & control centre (CCC) and AI-driven project performance monitoring, which are going to be implemented by September 2027. 

How does global collaboration and portfolio diversification contribute to achieving breakthrough energy and climate goals?

In an important step towards bolstering India’s offshore exploration efforts, OIL and TotalEnergies have signed a one-of-a-kind Technology Service Agreement to enhance collaboration across deep and ultra-deepwater basins of India. This partnership will accelerate frontier basin exploration and will build a more resilient, self-reliant and future-ready energy ecosystem. OIL will leverage the technical expertise of TotalEnergies in its ongoing appraisal programme of reported gas discovery in the Andaman Basin’s shallow offshore block, and exploration in ultra-deep water blocks in Mahanadi & KG Basins, apart from evaluation opportunities under ongoing and future bidding rounds.

OIL is a signatory to the Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter (OGDC), and as part of technology sharing among members for net zero upstream methane emissions, has gained access to AUSEA technology of TotalEnergies. Mapping of more than 20 installations has been carried out for methane emissions, on the basis of which final report action will be taken to mitigate methane emissions.

India is the third-largest energy consumer in the world, with an expected annual energy demand growth of approximately 3% until 2040 - as compared to the global rate of approximately 1% - ensuring energy security will always be paramount. The demand for oil is expected to increase from 270 MMToE in 2024 to 335 MMToE in 2030, and to 411 MMToE in 2040, with oil’s share in India’s energy mix expected to decrease from 27% in 2024 to 26 % by 2040. This, coupled with India’s plan to increase its refining capacity to 450 MMTPA from the existing figure of 258 MMTPA, and to increase the share of natural gas in its energy mix from 6 % to 15 % by 2030, will ensure significant demand for oil and gas in India. India’s current import dependency in crude oil is about 88%, and in natural gas is around 46%.

Keeping all the above scenarios in mind and our overall inherent strength, OIL expects to achieve 5-7% of non-fossil energy by 2030, which would be further ramped up to 12-15% by 2040. 

OIL forayed into renewable energy in 2012, with the commissioning of its wind energy power project at Lodurva in Rajasthan. Till date, OIL has established a total of 2074 MW (174 MW of wind in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madha Pradesh, and 1900 MW of solar power in Rajasthan and Assam). An MoU has been signed with Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited (RRVUNL) for developing 1,000 MW of solar and 200 MW of wind power projects in Rajasthan. Further, OIL is pursuing setting up of renewable energy projects and other alternate energy sources in the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha and Himachal Pradesh to diversify its energy portfolio. Given the increasing importance of critical minerals and the energy transition impacting our current core business, we are also moving ahead with strategic diversification in the critical minerals sector, by leveraging current capabilities and knowledge.
In alignment with the Government of India's mission to enhance the component of natural gas in the primary energy mix of India and to provide affordable and sustainable energy, OIL is in the process of setting up 25 numbers of CBG plants across India with a minimum plant size of 2 TPD. 

OIL has also been awarded the Phop Graphite and Vanadium block in Arunachal Pradesh and has been declared a preferred bidder for the grant of a composite license for the Jorkian-Satipura-Khunja Amalgamated Potash and Halite Block in Hanumangarh district, the first successful Potash auction in India.