Oil India Limited is steadily transforming from an upstream company primarily focused on onshore assets and exploration acreages into an integrated Maharatna central public sector enterprise, with an array of joint ventures and major subsidiaries across the value chain, thereby enhancing the overall exploration footprint. Recently, at the Investors’ & Analysts’ Meet 2026, Dr Ranjit Rath, Chairman and Managing Director, Oil India Limited, spoke about the ongoing exploration and production efforts, progress in deep drilling, operational milestones, expanding footprint in the north-eastern region, and future priorities and targets. Edited excerpts…
Mapping financial and operational performance
In 2025-26, the consolidated financial performance of Oil India remained resilient despite a softening of crude oil prices from $78-$69 per barrel. The company posted a consolidated income of approximately Rs 389.81 billion, demonstrating a 3 per cent year-on-year growth. Furthermore, the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) and profit after tax (PAT) grew at a rate of 5 per cent and 7 per cent respectively, with EBITDA reaching Rs 134.98 billion and PAT standing at Rs 75.51 billion. Market capitalisation has witnessed a growth of approximately 32 per cent since April 2025. Moreover, the company announced a dividend of Rs 11.50 per share, matching the precise amount distributed in 2024-25.
Against the backdrop of production efforts and despite various operational challenges, the company maintained a resilient production performance, achieving a total volume of 6.64 million metric tonnes (mmt) of oil and oil equivalent. This output primarily comprises 3.45 mmt of oil and 3.15 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas. Notably, operations were severely disrupted by an economic blockade in a primary area of operation, which adversely affected overall production levels. As a direct result of these disruptions, the company experienced an estimated opportunity loss of 0.1 mmt of crude oil and 0.3 bcm of natural gas.
During the year, Oil India achieved the highest-ever drilling performance with 74 wells, which include 22 exploratory wells and 52 development wells. The year also witnessed record-high workover operations, totalling 307. Currently, the company possesses an exploration acreage portfolio exceeding 100,000 square km alongside approximately 4,800 petroleum mining leases.
Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) demonstrated strong performance. The refinery currently operates at a capacity of 3 mmt and achieved a crude oil throughput of 103 per cent in 2025-26. Furthermore, NRL registered an operational availability of 99.1 per cent and a record-high yield of 87.25 per cent. Moreover, it also achieved its highest-ever motor spirit (petrol) production, totalling 727 thousand metric tonnes.
Parallel to these production efforts, the transportation infrastructure also advanced significantly. The Numaligarh-Siliguri product pipeline capacity expansion project has now been successfully commissioned and inaugurated. This project, with an estimated capital cost of Rs 8.6 billion, has successfully scaled up capacity from 1.72 million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa) to 5.5 mmtpa. This expansion ensures the seamless evacuation of products from the refinery as its capacity scales up to 9 million tonnes, routing them efficiently to Siliguri. While executing the project, around Rs 1 billion was saved.
Till date, Oil India has established over 80 compressed natural gas (CNG) stations and approximately 73,300 piped natural gas (PNG) connections.
Ongoing project portfolio and expansion plans
Currently, three offshore drilling operations are under way. Work is ongoing on a 6,000 metre well within the Kerala-Konkan basin. A third well is being drilled in the Andaman & Nicobar region, where sand formations are currently being tested. Another well is being drilled within the discovered small field (DSF) block of the Krishna-Godavari basin, a shallow-water block acquired under the DSF Round III bidding cycle.
Oil India has secured the authorisation for the Duliajan feeder line, which will enable the company to evacuate 3.5 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of natural gas. This infrastructure ensures that gas produced from Oil India’s north-eastern fields can be seamlessly distributed to both regional consumers and mainland India. Currently, the company’s overall natural gas production stands at 8 mmscmd, with the potential to ramp up to 13 mmscmd. With this expansion, the north-eastern region’s demand will be fully met. Furthermore, city gas distribution entities will now be supplied through NRL, acting as a reseller via the newly commissioned Duliajan-Numaligarh pipeline.
The capacity expansion of the Numaligarh refinery from 3 mmtpa to 9 mmtpa remains firmly on track. On December 31, 2025, Oil India successfully introduced crude into the secondary units, and the overall commissioning process is currently under way. The primary mother units – specifically the 6 mmtpa crude distillation unit and the vacuum distillation unit – are expected to be commissioned by July 2026. This will be followed by the commissioning of the diesel hydrotreating unit. By early January 2027, the company will commence the commissioning of the petrochemical fluidised catalytic cracking units. This phased roll-out will give the company a distinct operational advantage, positioning it to have the entire 9 mmtpa expanded refinery fully commissioned by March 2027, while work on the polypropylene unit continues to progress simultaneously.
On September 14, 2025, the centre inaugurated a 2G bioethanol plant utilising bamboo feedstock. This landmark project is tightly aligned with the company’s alternative energy portfolio and directly supports India’s import substitution objectives, as this ethanol will be blended into motor spirit. Beyond this, it yields high-value co-products, including green furfural, green acetic acid and biochar. These bio-products open up lucrative international trade avenues, and the government has already provided export exemptions for them. To capitalise on this, Oil India is currently in the process of securing Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals certification, which is mandatory for exporting these sustainable materials as certified green products into Europe.
Turning to the overseas assets, effective November 2025, the force majeure previously invoked on the Mozambique liquefied natural gas (LNG) project has been lifted. With approximately 6,000 personnel currently on the ground, the company is now targeting the commissioning of the two LNG trains, which have a combined capacity of 13 mmtpa, by late 2028 or early 2029. The equity gas corresponding to Oil India’s share will now flow directly to India from Mozambique. Additionally, the Russian assets have successfully realised nearly 100 per cent of the dividend receivables.
Recent policy steps set a strong course
The New Well Gas framework – which commands a 20 per cent premium over the monthly notified administered price mechanism gas price – has now been allocated to the Numaligarh refinery. This creates a mutually beneficial outcome: Oil India will realise higher value for its efforts to enhance natural gas production, while NRL will optimise its costs by eliminating the need to import expensive LNG from the west coast. Moreover, NRL has now been officially notified as a reseller for the Duliajan-Numaligarh pipeline, further strengthening its midstream capabilities.
Significant regulatory developments have been announced with respect to the royalty structures and post-wellhead cost realisations. These strategic initiatives by the centre are primarily designed to improve cash retention for upstream oil companies, thereby incentivising higher domestic production. In line with this supportive policy framework, the government has conceptualised the Samudra Manthan Mission. Under this, the government will not only sponsor the collection of critical 2D and 3D seismic data but will also provide financial backing for the deepwater and ultra-deepwater exploratory wells that we plan to drill within our exploration acreages.
Due to the ongoing geopolitical crisis in the Middle East, the global supply side has experienced significant turmoil. In response, the centre is heavily promoting a structural shift from liquefied petroleum gas connections to PNG. Oil India is strategically positioned to capitalise on this transition. In mainland India, the company holds operational interests in two key geographical areas: Kolhapur and the Ambala-Kurukshetra region. In the Northeast, through subsidiaries and joint ventures, Oil India’s footprint covers Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, six districts of Tripura, the entire north bank of Assam, and six districts on the south bank, including Guwahati. This extensive network augurs exceptionally well for natural gas production potential, ensuring high-volume consumption in close proximity to the company’s production centres.
Moving towards a gas-based economy
Oil India is fuelling India’s shift towards a gas-based economy. In line with this, the company is actively expanding into the compressed biogas (CBG) sector. It has been mandated to establish approximately 25 CBG projects. Currently, two plants are under construction – one in Bhubaneswar and the other in Tinsukia – while contracts for two additional projects, in Jorhat and Agartala, are in the process of being awarded. The remaining projects are at various stages of detailed project report preparation and tendering. Moving forward, the company’s entire alternative energy portfolio, comprising renewable assets such as solar, wind and CBG, will be consolidated and housed under Oil India Green Energy Limited.
Oil India’s strategic future road map includes a targeted drilling programme of approximately 100 wells, consisting of 40 exploratory wells and 60 development wells. This aims to significantly scale up exploration efforts, particularly across the 40,000 square km of deepwater and ultra-deepwater acreages in our portfolio. Furthermore, to appraise the significant gas discovery announced in September 2025 within the Andaman acreage, the company has onboarded TotalEnergies as the technology service agreement partner to support Oil India’s offshore exploration endeavours.
As the company expands its gas evacuation infrastructure to meet a long-term target of 5 bcm of natural gas, sustained near-term drilling momentum positions it well to achieve a crude oil production target of 4 mmt. On the exploration front, Oil India has already completed the requisite 2D and 3D seismic data acquisition across the deepwater blocks. The company will now converge these findings into a targeted drilling programme, leveraging capital support from the government’s Samudra Manthan mission to fund capex-intensive deepwater exploration.
Looking ahead, the long-term vision also includes scaling operations significantly, targeting 500 CNG stations and 1.4 million PNG connections across the operational networks by 2030-35.
