Vast oil reserves in UP*, black gold in Andaman**, and now, ONGC is committing billions of dollars hiring deep water drilling rigs from across the world. India is about to stop importing oil, right? Let's check.
India imports*** 88% of its oil, that's 137 billion dollars, leaving the country every single year. And our total proven reserves? If we stopped all imports today, India runs out of oil, in two and a half years. We produce a tiny fraction of what we consume.
Now here's what these headlines miss, ONGC's 20 billion dollar rigs, they're not here to pump oil, they're here to check, if oil even exists. Think of it like this, ONGC is spending crores on the world's most expensive metal detectors, before they even know if there's gold underground. Each test hole costs 80 to 150 crores, and most of them, come up completely dry.
Baliya in UP? ONGC ran geochemical surveys, gravity magnetic scans, magneto-telluric imaging. They found indicators, signs of crude oil underground. So they started drilling.
That drilling was supposed to finish by April 2025. It's now March 2026, almost a year of silence. No discovery announcement, no follow up wells. In 65 years of exploring the Ganga basin, still, zero confirmed commercial oil.
Andaman****? 25 wells in 40 years, zero commercial discoveries. They just spent 154 million dollars, to drill three new wells. First well, dry. Second, some gas, not enough to sell. Globally, 3 out of 4 deep water exploration wells, find nothing.
And even if they strike something big, 10 to 15 years before a single drop reaches the market. India is right to explore. You have to drill to find oil.
Guyana was a dead zone until Exxon found 11 billion barrels. So surprises happen. But even if both these projects hit jackpot, India's imports dropped from 88% to 86%.
That's not energy independence. That's a rounding error.
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* (https://invest.up.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/go/pressnews28032025-2.pdf)
***
(https://www.worldometers.info/oil/india-oil/)
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Posted by Effective_Lunch2071