Domestic production of crude oil up 5.8 per cent in May

Production of crude oil in the country rose 5.8 per cent year-on-year to 2.945 million tonnes in May this year. Actual production in May, however, was only 95 per cent of the targeted production of 3.099 million tonnes for the month.

For the two months, April and May, of the current financial year, crude production was up 5.5 per cent y-o-y at 5.816 million tonnes, compared with 5.513 million tonnes in April-May 2009, but down 2.2 per cent from the targeted 5.948 million tonnes for April-May 2010.   

ONGC contributed 2.024 of the total production, although its actual production was 5.6 per cent short of the targeted 2.145 million tonnes.

The other state-run oil producer, OIL, added 0.230 million tonnes to the country's total crude oil production, which was 25.8 per cent down from its targeted production of 0.320 million tonnes.
 
Private sector oil producers added 0.691 million tonnes to the country's oil pool, up 7.3 per cent from a targeted 0.644 million tonnes.

ONGC said its production in Gujarat was affected by increasing trend in water cut while production in Assam was affected by a shutdown at (Numaligarh Refinery), due to lack of `ullage" (space to store produced oil), from 29 April 2010 onwards.
 
ONGC said crude production from its SRP wells in Tamil Nadu was affected by load shedding by the TNEB.

Production from completed side track and development wells at ONGC's Mumbai High offshore wells was lower than estimated.
 
OIL's losses in Assam were due to ullage problem consequent upon shutdown of Numaligarh Refinery from 16 March 2010.