Vedanta Oil & Gas plans to invest $5 billion to increase its oil and gas production by more than fivefold, supporting India’s broader effort to reduce its dependence on imported energy, according to Bloomberg.
The company aims to raise output to approximately 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day within five years. Vedanta expects production to average about 100,000 barrels per day during the current fiscal year.
The investment will fund an extensive exploration and drilling program across the company’s onshore and offshore portfolio. Vedanta also plans to use enhanced oil recovery technologies to increase production from mature fields while accelerating the development of recently discovered resources.
The company’s production averaged approximately 87,200 barrels of oil equivalent per day during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026. This represents a substantial decline from more than 210,000 barrels per day approximately a decade earlier.
Vedanta’s largest producing assets are located in Rajasthan, where its mature fields have experienced natural production declines. The company plans to reverse that trend through additional drilling, reservoir management and technologies designed to recover more oil from existing resources.
The expansion strategy will also include investments in deepwater exploration and unconventional resources such as shale.
Vedanta Oil & Gas, formerly known as Cairn Oil & Gas, operates one of India’s largest private-sector upstream portfolios. The company holds interests in 44 onshore and offshore blocks covering approximately 47,000 square kilometers.
Its acreage spans Rajasthan, Gujarat, Assam, and Andhra Pradesh and includes both conventional oil and gas fields and unconventional hydrocarbon opportunities.
The company intends to finance the $5 billion program using a combination of internal cash generation and debt.
Vedanta Chairman Anil Agarwal has said the oil and gas business is debt-free and generates approximately $1 billion in annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
This financial position is expected to give the company flexibility to fund exploration while securing additional equipment, technology and financing from external partners.
The spending program is expected to span approximately three years, while the company’s fivefold production target is intended to be achieved within five years.
Vedanta believes the primary challenge will not be securing capital but executing the large drilling and development program needed to bring additional resources into production.
The company plans to work with technology providers, drilling contractors and engineering businesses to secure the equipment and technical capabilities required for the expansion.
Vedanta has previously indicated that it may pursue relationships with international oilfield services and engineering companies. These partnerships could provide access to drilling rigs, deepwater expertise and advanced recovery technologies.
The company’s offshore program is expected to be a major contributor to future growth.
Vedanta has been advancing discoveries along India’s western coast and intends to develop offshore fields more rapidly. The company has also completed the installation of specialized subsea infrastructure as part of its efforts to bring new offshore resources into production.
Deepwater projects are technically complex and require substantial upfront investment, but successful developments can add large volumes of production.
Vedanta also plans to drill and evaluate unconventional resources in Rajasthan. Shale exploration could provide another source of growth if the company demonstrates that the resources can be produced economically.
The company’s strategy involves balancing new exploration with efforts to increase recovery from fields that have already been producing for years.
Enhanced oil recovery technologies can involve injecting water, gas, chemicals or other materials into reservoirs to improve pressure and move additional oil toward production wells.
Vedanta believes applying these technologies across its Rajasthan assets could extend their productive lives and slow or reverse declining output.
The company is targeting production of approximately 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day as it seeks to become responsible for more than half of India’s domestic crude oil output.
Reaching that target would make Vedanta an even more important participant in India’s energy sector and could allow it to surpass state-controlled producers in certain areas.
India’s upstream oil and gas industry has struggled to increase production because many of its largest fields are mature and new discoveries have not been developed quickly enough to replace declining output.
State-owned and private exploration companies have faced geological, technological, regulatory and investment challenges while attempting to bring additional domestic resources into production.
At the same time, India’s energy consumption continues to rise as the economy expands, transportation demand increases and industrial activity grows.
The country remains heavily dependent on imported crude oil, leaving businesses and consumers exposed to fluctuations in global commodity prices, supply interruptions and geopolitical conflicts.
Increasing domestic production could reduce part of that exposure and improve the country’s energy security.
Vedanta estimates that India may have approximately 300 billion barrels of oil equivalent in potential hydrocarbon resources. However, large portions of the country’s sedimentary basins remain underexplored.
The company has called for faster exploration and greater collaboration among energy producers, technology providers and policymakers.
The Indian government has also been opening additional deepwater and ultra-deepwater acreage to encourage exploration and attract new investment.
Vedanta believes regulatory reforms, faster approvals and increased access to exploration areas could help the industry unlock resources that have not previously been commercially developed.
The expansion follows the restructuring of Vedanta’s diversified natural resources operations into separately listed businesses.
Vedanta Oil & Gas began trading as an independent listed company in June 2026, providing investors with direct exposure to the group’s upstream energy operations.
The separation is intended to give each business greater operational focus, financial flexibility and accountability while allowing investors to value the companies independently.
Agarwal has said each of the separated Vedanta businesses could eventually achieve a market capitalization of $100 billion.
For the oil and gas company, achieving that ambition will depend on reversing production declines, executing its exploration program and converting discoveries into commercial output.
The company will also need to manage commodity-price volatility, drilling risks, regulatory requirements and the technical challenges associated with deepwater and unconventional development.
Vedanta expects its debt-free starting position and cash-generating assets to support the investment program while allowing the company to continue operating as a dividend-paying business.
Management believes the expansion can create substantial value by increasing production from resources that already exist within the company’s portfolio.
The company is also positioning its growth strategy as part of a national effort to strengthen India’s energy independence.
If Vedanta reaches its production target, the business would produce more than five times its recent output and become one of the most significant private-sector oil and gas producers in Asia.
