India’s biggest oil, gas reserve sees 40% dip in production, officials blame Covid

Oil and gas production in Rajasthan witnessed a 40% dip in the past two years due to less extraction, primarily due to Covid-19, officials said, even as the government plans to further expand oil exploration in the region.

Oil prices in the country have been on the rise for the past few months due to an increase in crude oil prices in the international market. In some places in Rajasthan, such as Sri Ganganagar, not very far from oil producing Barmer, the price of petrol is close to ₹110 per litre.

Barmer is the country’s biggest source of oil and natural gas, and contributed ₹1,904.79 crore to state revenue in 2020-21, down from ₹3,883.22 in 2018-19. This means that oil fields contributed ₹10 crore a day to the state government, whose other big revenue sources are mines, excise, and stamp and registration.

“The state revenue from oil declined majorly due to less extraction of oil, affecting the production and crude oil prices, and partly Covid-19,” an official said, talking about the reasons for the dip in the revenue.