Oil and gas production in Rajasthan witnessed a 40% dip in the past two years due to less extraction, primarily due to Covid-19, officials said, even as the government plans to further expand oil exploration in the region.

Oil prices in the country have been on the rise for the past few months due to an increase in crude oil prices in the international market. In some places in Rajasthan, such as Sri Ganganagar, not very far from oil producing Barmer, the price of petrol is close to Rs 110 per litre.

Barmer is the country’s biggest source of oil and natural gas, and contributed Rs 1,904.79 crore to state revenue in 2020-21, down from Rs 3,883.22 in 2018-19. This means that oil fields contributed Rs 10 crore a day to the state government, whose other big revenue sources are mines, excise, and stamp and registration.

“The state revenue from oil declined majorly due to less extraction of oil, affecting the production and crude oil prices, and partly Covid-19,” an official said, talking about the reasons for the dip in the revenue.

Barmer’s Gudamalani area has reserves of 10 billion cubic metres of gas, of which only 30% has been explored. India’s total oil and gas reserves are 28.1 billion cubic metes, according to the petroleum ministry website.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Source: HT