Crude production up 5.2% in April, gas output rises 54.2%

India's crude oil production rose for the fifth month in succession in April, driven by higher output from Cairn India.

Crude oil production in April, at 2.871 million tonnes, was 5.2 per cent more than the output of 2.73 million tonnes in the corresponding month a year ago, according to the latest production figures released by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas here.

Cairn is currently producing about 60,000 barrels of per day from its Rajasthan field.

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp's (ONGC) output was almost unchanged, at 2.03 million tonnes, while Oil India saw a 3.8 per cent rise in production to 300,000 tonnes in April.

Production from ONGC's prime Mumbai High fields dropped by almost 1 per cent to 1.409 million tonnes.

Non-state firms like Cairn reported a 32.6 per cent rise in output to 541,000 tonnes.

Natural gas production was up 54.2 per cent, at 4.52 billion cubic metres, on the back of output from Reliance Industries' eastern offshore KG-D6 fields.

Refiners processed 5.3 per cent more crude, at 13.136 million tonnes, in April. Indian Oil Corp (IOC) processed 1.6 per cent more crude, at 4.42 million tonnes, while Reliance Industries turned 5.5 per cent more crude -- at 2.29 million tonnes -- into products.