India Spends $11 Billion on Oil Exploration Amid Rising Demand

The Indian government has approved an $11 billion scheme to explore for oil and gas off its coast, known as Samudra Manthan. The plan aims to acquire modern seismic data across India's offshore basins, drill 60 deepwater exploration wells, and build shared infrastructure to produce any discoveries.

India's crude production has fallen from 36.9 million tonnes in 2015-16 to 28.7 million tonnes in 2024-25, even as import dependency has climbed to a record 88.7% in the financial year just ended. The International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) both name India the single largest source of new oil demand between now and 2050.

Oil does not sit in underground lakes, but occupies microscopic pore spaces inside certain kinds of rock. For those rocks to hold commercially useful volumes, five separate things have to be true in the same place at the same time: a source rock, a reservoir rock, a seal, a trap, and proper timing.

Exploration fails as often as it does because these conditions are rarely met. The success rate for offshore wildcat wells is just under 25%, meaning three of every four exploratory wells come up dry.