Big oil is eyeing India for big investments
U.S. oil majors Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp—along with France’s TotalEnergies, are taking a long, hard look at upping their investments in India’s oil and gas exploration and production sector, India’s oil minister said in a Friday speech, carried by Reuters.
ExxonMobil said back in December that its 2023 spending plans include $23 billion – $27 billion in capital investments to maintain its current production level of 3.7 million boepd. Longer-term, ExxonMobil said it would spend between $20 billion and $25 billion on growing the U.S. supermajor’s production by 500,000 boepd within the next four years—with 70% of that capital being put into the U.S. Permian Basin, Guyana, Brazil, and LNG projects, and $17 billion of it into lower-emissions investments.
U.S.-based Chevron increased its capex for 2023 by 25%, with $17 billion planned on capital projects this year. Chevron said that $8 billion of this would go to developing U.S. oil and gas production assets—about half of which would be thrown into the Permian. $2 billion would be sunk into its other U.S. assets, and 20% of its upstream capital would be spent on projects in the GoM. Another $2 billion was earmarked for lower-carbon projects. It also set aside money for its projects in Kazakhstan and its chemicals JV with Phillips 66 in Texas.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil importer, leaving the nation to purchase 84% of all the oil it consumes, according to Retuers. It has been taking advantage of discounting Russian crude oil since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but has been looking to develop its own reserves to move away from its heavy reliance on costly imports.
“India is ready to explore opportunities for joint development production of oil and gas assets for mutual benefit and also invites investment in our domestic E&P sector,” Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday.
