Natural gas production up 3.6% in August

After over a year, domestic natural gas production increased in August by 3.66 per cent to 2.836 billion cubic metres (bcm). In the same month last year, the production was 2.736 bcm.

The major contributors to the increase was a 5.27 per cent growth in public sector enterprise ONGC’s domestic gas production. The company produced 1.855 bcm in the month compared with 1.762 bcm in corresponding year-ago period.

ONGC’s major improvement was from its eastern offshore fields where production increased several fold to 21 million cubic metres from 1.309 million cubic metres in the same month last year.

Production also increased 17.08 per cent from its onshore fields to 398.845 million cubic metres, and by 1.04 per cent from its western offshore fields to 1.435 bcm.

ONGC’s western offshore fields and Cairn India’s oilfields in Rajasthan led the rebound in domestic crude oil production in August, which grew 5.57 per cent year-on-year to 3.193 million tonne.

In the same month last year, domestic crude oil production was 3.024 million tonne.

The growth was led by a 7.05 per cent increase in production from ONGC’s western offshore to 1.321 million tonne.

Cairn India’s Rajasthan fields produced 0.735 million tonne of crude oil during August, a 18.36 per cent growth over the same month last year.

On Monday, ONGC’s shares closed 0.1 per cent higher on the BSE at ₹238.85, while Cairn India’s shares fell 0.63 per cent to ₹142.80.

The refinery throughput in the country grew 5.79 per cent to 19.611 million tonne from 18.537 million tonne in August 2014.