Commodity Online

NEW DELHI: In an attempt to reduce oil imports and to increase the domestic production of oil, the government has taken various measures, said the Minister for Petroleum Natural Gas Murli Deora in the Parliament today.

He said crude oil import has been steadily rising during the past years with the increase in our domestic refining capacity and consumption but the domestic production of crude oil is remaining almost stagnant.

In the year 2006 07, about 79 percent of the crude oil processed in the refineries was imported, he said.

The details of crude oil imports during the last three years are as under:

Year
Quantity
Value
(Rs. Crore)
2004 05
95.9
117003
2005 06
99.4
171702
2006 07
111.5
219029

The details of domestic production, import and consumption of crude oil during the last three years are as under:

Quantity in MMT*
Year
Domestic Production (Without condensate)
Import of crude oil
Consumption
2004 05
32.1
95.9
111.6
2005 06
30.1
99.4
113.2
2006 07
31.5
111.5
120.7
MMT: Million Metric Tonne

Following are the measures that are being taken by the Petroleum Ministry:

a Carving out more and more areas for exploration for offer under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP).

b Quicker development of discovered reserves for expediting commencement of production.

c Use of stimulation techniques for increasing production from existing fields.

d Application of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)/Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) techniques for increasing recovery factor from existing fields.

e Arresting decline from ageing fields.

f Acquisition of exploration acreages and oil producing properties overseas, to bring in equity oil.

g Substitution of oil through use of non conventional source of energy such as bio diesel, ethanol, etc.

Crude oil