A 2% slip in India’s overall oil production in December is not a development that is likely to escape the attention of a country which ranks third – behind the United States and China – and which is 85% reliant on imports in order to meet its domestic crude oil needs.
Recently India’s Financial Express reported that in December the country’s oil production was 2.51 million tonnes, down from the 2.55 million tonnes realized a year earlier and from a set December 2021 target of 2.6 million tonnes.
India’s reduced production level at the end of last year is attributed to a lower production output from the state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. (ONGC), the country’s biggest oil producer on account of what, reportedly, were delays in mobilizing equipment at its western offshore fields.