BP Sets Eyes on India’s Oil and Gas Opportunities

Global energy major BP said on Wednesday it is holding a board meeting in India this week, as it scouts for more opportunities in the country.

India, the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer, wants to quickly raise its oil and gas output, which has been stagnant for years.

In June, the government had said that the country's top exploration company Oil and Natural Gas Corp was seeking a technical tie-up with a global oil major to boost production from its western offshore Mumbai High fields.

"We see growing business opportunities, including through our world-class partnership with Reliance, producing the country's gas and growing our joint retail presence," BP CEO Murray Auchincloss said in a statement on Wednesday.

The BP board, on a five-day visit to the country, met India's Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday.

"Robust partnership between the global energy major and India which spans across the entire energy value chain including exploration and production, biofuels, fuel retail and other emerging areas will continue to grow further," Puri said in a post on social media platform X.

BP, in a tie-up with Reliance Industries, operates 1,900 fuel retail stations across India and produces oil and gas from a deepwater block in the Krishna-Godavari basin, off the country's east coast.

The Reliance-BP tie-up has teamed up with ONGC to bid for exploration rights for an offshore block in India, according to the website of India's upstream regulator the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons.

"By leveraging our combined experience and expertise with our partners, we aim to facilitate the secure, affordable, and lower carbon growth of India's energy resources to meet the increasing demand," BP Chairman Helge Lund said.

(Reuters - Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Rashmi Aich)