Petroleum and Natural Gas in India

The first crude oil discovery in India was in Digboi, Assam, during the British rule. It was in 1889. Oil extraction began soon after. Before independence, up to 7000 barrels of oil were extracted from here daily. Even after independence, foreign oil companies continued to extract oil in India. The British-owned Burma Oil Company and the American company Socony-Vacuum were some of them. However, with the Industrial Policy of 1956, the monopoly of foreign companies ended. An act passed by the Parliament in October 1959 hindered the activities of foreign companies. Following this, the Oil and Natural Gas Commission was formed to plan the petroleum sector.

India's development activities in this sector were carried out with the cooperation of countries such as West Germany, the Soviet Union, and Romania. The Oil and Natural Gas Commission was later transformed into the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. The activities of petroleum companies in India came under this corporation. But as part of the economic liberalization in 1991, India allowed private investment, including foreign investment, in the petroleum sector as well. Today, ONGC has expanded its operations abroad and has expanded domestic oil extraction. But we are still not able to extract as much petroleum as we need. This is because consumption is rising sharply. We are now importing 80 percent of the crude petroleum we need. At the same time, as a result of ONGC's activities, oil and natural gas deposits have been discovered in the Bombay High and Krishna-Godavari river basins.

Petroleum and Natural Gas Companies

• ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation)

• Reliance Industries

• Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL)

• GAIL (India)

• BPCL (Bharat Petroleum)

• HPCL (Hindustan Petroleum)

• Cairn Oil & Gas (Vedanta)