ONGC expects major recovery from Mumbai High in 14 months

Arun Kumar Singh, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of ONGC, told reporters on Friday that a study is currently underway for the planned EOR.

“It has been only four months. This partnership started in April (2025). One thing you can say is that green shoots are good. All I can say is it’s good. We are very optimistic. Small wins will come in 7-8 months, but big wins will take around a year and a half. That’s in our contract that it will take 2 years for developments to happen,” he said.

This year, ONGC and bp signed a contract under which bp would serve as the technical services provider (TSP) for the Mumbai High field, India’s largest offshore oil field.

Under the partnership terms, ONGC retains ownership and operational control of the field. bp will receive a fixed fee for two years for its deployed personnel, followed by a service fee linked to incremental oil and gas production.

The UK-headquartered energy giant would work in close collaboration with ONGC to stabilize the field’s current production decline and restore it to a robust growth trajectory.

Pankaj Kumar, ONGC director (offshore), said, “We are still in study mode. Otherwise, the Mumbai High is a huge field. They are studying data. We have identified an internal team that is working with them (bp). Preliminary indications are good.”

Speaking on the acquisition of assets globally amid geopolitical uncertainty, the CEO said that its subsidiary ONGC Videsh Ltd is open to acquiring assets anywhere in the globe if it seems commercially beneficial.

“Normally, troubled times don’t last for more than a year or two because the world does not have the capacity to tolerate them for long. If the asset comes at a price which is acceptable to us, with a future that we see for ourselves, and at a reasonable price, we have a thinking that we should go for it. Because this one or two years (of uncertainty) will go away,” Singh said.