According to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas of India, India's crude oil production declined by less than 1% to 35.68 Mt in fiscal year 2017-2018 (April 2017-March 2018), due to an output decline across almost all of the country's offshore and onshore oil fields. The sixth consecutive year of declining oil output increased India's crude oil import dependence to a six-year high of 83%, further denting the government's goal of a 10% reduction in energy import dependence by 2022. The higher import dependence may also push India's oil import bill for 2018-19 beyond the projected 20% increase to US$105bn, due to the recent global oil price recovery.
India's natural gas production increased by more than 2% to nearly 33 bcm in 2017-2018, reversing the declining trend since 2011-2012, as higher production from onshore oil and gas blocks (+8% to nearly 11 bcm) offset the decline in offshore blocks.
In fiscal year 2017-2018, India's refining capacity grew by nearly 6% to 247.6 Mt/year, primarily driven by capacity expansions at Reliance Industries' Jamnagar refinery (8 Mt/year) and Bharat Petroleum's Kochi refinery (3 Mt/year).