Vedanta plans $200 mn Rajasthan oil push

Vedanta Oil and Gas is boosting its investment in mature Rajasthan oil fields to counter dwindling production. The company, formerly Cairn India, plans to spend $200 million (₹2,000 crore) in 2026-27 across three northern Rajasthan fields - Mangla, Bhagyam, and Aishwariya. The immediate target is Mangla, which has the potential to increase crude output from the current 80,000 barrels per day to over 150,000 bpd through enhanced-recovery techniques like polymer flooding and well interventions.

Jim Johnny Gast, the interim CEO of Vedanta Oil and Gas, explained that natural reservoir decline is causing production to drop by 1-3% in these fields. He emphasized that increasing production from existing wells is crucial to closing the vast production gap between India's stagnant crude output (0.87-0.99 mmboe) and skyrocketing demand (2.65 to 5.6 mmboe). Over the past two decades, total crude production has remained flat while consumption has nearly doubled.

Vedanta aims to explore small sedimentary basins with untapped potential and ramp up production from its existing wells to help reduce this gap, according to Gast, who spoke to media in Barmer. Currently, Rajasthan accounts for 81% of the company's total production, with the company's average gross operated production at 77.7 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day in the first quarter of the current financial year, a 17% decrease from the previous year. The company has already achieved 41% recovery from producing wells and aims to reach 60% recovery.