NEW DELHI: In a bid to boost its crude oil and natural gas production, Oil India Limited (OIL), India’s second-largest oil and gas producer, announced on Wednesday a strategic collaboration with France’s TotalEnergies to explore opportunities in the deep and ultra-deepwater offshore regions of India’s sedimentary basins, including the drilling of stratigraphic wells.
According to the companies, TotalEnergies will provide technological services to support exploration activities in OIL’s current and future offshore portfolio. This collaboration includes the ongoing appraisal program for a gas discovery in shallow offshore blocks in the Andaman Basin, as well as exploration in OIL’s OALP-IX ultra-deepwater blocks in the Mahanadi and Krishna-Godavari basins.
The partnership also covers evaluating opportunities under the ongoing OALP-X and future bid rounds, as well as providing support during stratigraphic well drilling initiatives in offshore Category-II and Category-III basins. Indian oil and gas exploration companies have been partnering with foreign technology providers to enhance production capabilities and tap into deepwater and ultra-deepwater reserves.
Earlier, India’s largest state-owned oil and gas company, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), collaborated with BP for exploration in the Mumbai High fields. Both OIL and ONGC have been actively exploring hydrocarbon reserves in the Andaman Sea, hoping to make discoveries that will reduce India's heavy reliance on imports for its energy needs. Currently, India imports 88 percent of its oil and 50 percent of its natural gas.
“The strategic collaboration marks a significant milestone in OIL’s commitment to pursuing offshore exploration activities aimed at discovering new hydrocarbon reserves and ensuring a sustainable energy future for India,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
In its financial result, OIL reported a 28 percent quarter-on-quarter increase in net profit, which rose to Rs 1,044 crore for the September quarter, compared to Rs 813.5 crore in the previous quarter. Revenue for the quarter increased by 8.9 percent to Rs 5,456 crore, up from Rs 5,012 crore in Q1 FY26.
The company’s oil and oil-equivalent gas (O+OEG) production remained stable, with output at 1.652 MMTOE in Q2 FY26, compared to 1.674 MMTOE in the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, its subsidiary, Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL), sustained crude throughput at 753 TMT, an increase from 683 TMT in Q2 FY25, marking a capacity utilization of 100.38 percent.