 "ONGC")
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC), India's state-owned petroleum explorer, today said it expects capital expenditure in the current financial year ending March to come down by 10 per cent as compared to what was planned owing to sharp drop in exploration costs.
This comes amid the ongoing historic crude oil price slump that has shrunk margins for exploration firms. Global oil price benchmarks have plummeted to a 12-year low of $30 per barrel on continued concerns over Chinese economy amid a global glut.
"Our capital expenditure will come down by around 10 per cent as compared to the planned Rs 36,000 crore for the current financial year. This is not because of any cut in capex but only because the (exploration) costs have come down," ONGC Chairman and Managing Director D K Sarraf said, responding to a recent news report that said the company will cut capex by Rs 4,000 crore this fiscal.
He added ONGC would carry out the same amount of activity as it had planned -- drilling of number of wells, seismic surveys and field development -- but the money spent on these will be lower as the cost at which some of the services which are available in the market are lower now.
Sarraf was talking to media persons on the sidelines of a conference organized by the petroleum ministry as a curtain-raiser for the two day India-Africa Hydrocarbon Conference that is slated to take place here from 21 January. As many as 17 countries have confirmed their participation and of these 10 countries are sending ministerial-level officials to the conference.
Speaking on the occasion, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the conference will witness talks between governments, businesses and regulators of the two nations to ramp up bilateral partnership in upstream and downstream projects apart from gas trade.
"Africa is the hot-spot for investments in oil and gas sector. Partnership with Africa will be a key aspect of India's efforts to realize Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of increasing the country's energy security," Pradhan said, adding the country's oil imports from Nigeria and other African nations will increase in future.
India imported 32 million tonne of crude oil from African nations last fiscal including 2.2 million tonnes from Nigeria. The country imports around 189 million tonnes of crude oil annually.
The minister also said the government has set an ambitious target of opening 10,000 new LPG dealerships in 2016 on top of around 16,000 existing dealers in the country at present. "Also, the oil companies will open new 104 CNG retail outlets in addition to existing 350 CNG filling stations in next three months," he said.
Commenting on the progress of the centre's plan to introduce Direct Benefit Transfer for kerosene subsidy in 33 districts across seven states from 1 April, Pradhan said the oil ministry will soon call a meeting of state-level officials dealing with the new scheme to get more states on board.
