By Admin 
- Crude oil and gas production in India is continuously declining.
- The reason is depletion of old oil fields and non-discovery of new reserves.
- Dependence on imports increased: crude oil 89%, gas 51%.
- Exploration, development and investment necessary for energy self-sufficiency.
India’s Crude oil Production Falls: The continuous decline in domestic production of crude oil and natural gas in India has now become a big concern. Crude oil production has declined for the 11th consecutive year in 2025-26, while gas production has also declined for the second year. If we talk about the reason for this, it is the depletion of old oil fields and non-discovery of new large reserves. Due to this, India’s dependence on imports has increased to 89 percent in crude oil and 51 percent in gas. Meanwhile, incidents like Middle East tension have made the situation more difficult, due to which oil has become expensive and the shortage is also clearly visible.
Crude oil decreased by 22 percent
Over the past few years, the government has implemented several reforms aimed at promoting oil exploration activities, such as creating data repositories and simplifying regulations, but large foreign companies are still showing little interest. Production has continuously decreased in the last 10 years. Crude oil has decreased by 22 percent.
What are the main reasons for decline in production?
depletion of old oil fields
With time the old reserves are becoming empty, due to which the production is naturally decreasing.
Lack of new major discoveries
No major oil or gas reserves have been found in the last decade, due to which production could not increase.
delay in commercialization
The resources that have been identified have not been developed rapidly.
production data
crude oil
Production will fall by 2.5 percent to 28 million metric tons in 2025–26 and a total decline of 22 percent has been observed since 2014–15.
natural gas
3.7 percent decline to 34,776 mmscm in 2025–26
Nearly 40 percent decline from 2011–12 to 2020–21
Some improvement in 2021–22, but production stable for now
India should become self-reliant in energy sector
From all this it can be understood that now there is a strong need for India to rapidly increase exploration, development and investment to become self-reliant in the energy sector, because increasing dependence on imports can become a bigger challenge in the future.