India is likely to see the start of 647 oil and gas projects during 2021 to 2025, accounting for a third of the overall project launches across the value chain in the Asia-Pacific (Apac) region within the period, analytics firm GlobalData said on April 1. 

According to a GlobalData report, 80 of the projects will be in the upstream sector, 123 in the midstream, 85 in refining and 359 in petrochemicals.

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“India is one of the largest consumers and importers of oil and gas in the world due to its economic growth. Though India is taking steps to increase oil and gas production, the focus is more on the development of midstream, refineries and petrochemicals infrastructure for greater imports, processing, transport and storage,” Soorya Tejomoortula, oil & gas analyst at GlobalData, said. 

Downstream (refineries) and petrochemical projects together constitute about 69% of all upcoming oil and gas projects in India during 2021 to 2025. The 180,000 barrels/day capacity Barmer refinery is one of the key projects with a total cost of $4.5bn. The project is presently under the construction stage and is expected to start operations in 2025. 

In petrochemicals projects, the Haldia Petrochemicals’ Balasore Xylene plant is one of the most important projects with a capacity of 1.6mn metric tons/year and costing $1.9bn. The project has already received approval and is expected to start operations in 2024, GlobalData said. 

GlobalData notes that midstream projects would constitute around 19% of all oil and gas projects that start in India during the period 2021 to 2025. In the midstream sector, the pipeline segment alone constitutes 47% of all projects followed by oil storage and LNG with 36% and 14% respectively. The development of natural gas pipelines with state-run Gail’s Jagdishpur–Haldia second phase being one of the key projects with a length of 1,900 km and costing $1.4bn. The pipeline is presently in the construction stage and is expected to start operations in 2022. 

In the oil storage segment, Chandikhol strategic petroleum reserves project is a key development with a capacity of 30mn barrels and a project cost of $941mn. The project has received approval and is expected to start operations in 2025. Among upcoming LNG import terminals, Fox Petroleum’s Karwar floating LNG import terminal is a key development with a capacity of 365bn ft³ and a project cost of $573mn. 

In the upstream segment, state-run ONGC’s Cluster IIA is a key production project, which would start operations in 2021 with a total production capacity of 99,700 barrels of oil equivalent/day.