State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp expects recovery in its oil production from the Mumbai High field, where it partners with British oil major BP, to start from January. The company on Tuesday said that under the tie-up, ONGC is likely to see “green shoots” of improvement from January onwards with major production gains anticipated in FY29–FY30.
“Under the TSP (technical service provider) with BP, we are likely to see green shoots from January onwards. We have got some positive indications already. And under this contract, what has been committed so to say by BP is that over a 10 year period, we should increase our oil and gas production from Mumbai High by about 60% on a cumulative basis,” the company said in an analyst call.
The company said that BP is likely to come up with a fully credit plan on the incremental production from the MH field by January 2027.
“However, what we are expecting is that in normal cases, you have the production coming in after three to four years after the start of that project. So I think we should start having incremental production from FY29-FY30 onwards,” the company’s management said.
The two companies had signed a contract earlier this year wherein BP will serve as the Technical Services Provider for the Mumbai High field of ONGC to stabilize the field’s current production decline and restore it to a robust growth trajectory. Under the terms of the contract, BP will receive a fixed fee for a period of two years for its deployed personnel, followed by a service fee linked to incremental oil and gas production.
The company expects its crude oil and gas production to be slightly lesser in FY26 than its projected estimates. ONGC expects to produce 20 million metric tonnes of crude oil, less than 21 mmt projected. The gas output for the fiscal is likely to be slightly lesser than that 21.5 billion cubic meter projected earlier.
“For this year 2025-26 we have had a certain little bit of a downside from what we were expecting. The production is likely to shift a little bit to next year,” the company said. However, the company expects production to improve starting in the first quarter of the next year 2026-27.
ONGC’s standalone crude oil production (excluding condensate) during Q2FY26 and H1FY26 stood at 4.630 million tonnes and 9.314 MMT respectively registering a growth of 1.2% over corresponding periods of FY25.
On the gas production front, ONGC has been able to arrest the degrowth. The decline, which was 0.35% in Q1FY26 over Q1FY25 has been brought down to 0.04% in Q2FY26 over Q2FY25.
The company also informed that the consortium partners of the Offshore Area 1 LNG project in Mozambique have decided to lift the force majeure owing to improved security situation in the region.
“Partners have decided to lift the force measure. So we are expecting that ballot to happen shortly and once that happens, then it will be officially that force measure would be lifted,” the company said.
The company holds a 10% stake in the “Offshore Area 1 LNG” project, operated by the French energy company Total SE with 26.5% participating stake. The project has been under force majeure since April 2021 following attacks by Islamic State terrorists in Northern Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province. Other consortium partners also include Bharat Petroleum’s subsidiary, Bharat PetroResources holding a 10% participating interest.
The company on Monday recorded a 28% jump in its consolidated net profit in the second quarter of financial year 2025-26 at Rs 12,614.60 crore from Rs 9,841.40 crore in the same period last fiscal.