State-Owned Oil Firms’ Capex Will Hit Four-Year Low In FY20
The firms had proposed an investment of Rs 89,335 crore in the current fiscal year, but will end up investing Rs 94,438 crore.
State-owned oil firms' capital expenditure has hit a four-year low with public sector undertakings like Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. planning to invest Rs 93,693 crore in oil and gas exploration, refining and petrochemicals in the 2019-20 fiscal year.
The capital expenditure outlay of ONGC, IOC, GAIL (India) Ltd., Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd., Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd., Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Ltd. and their subsidiaries is the lowest since 2014-15, according to Union Budget for 2019-20 documents.
Oil PSUs had proposed an investment of Rs 89,335 crore in the current fiscal year ending March 31, but will end up investing Rs 94,438 crore. This is lower than Rs 1,32,003 crore invested in 2017-18, Rs 1,04,426 crore in 2016-17 and Rs 97,223 crore invested in 2015-16.
They had invested Rs 89,180 crore in 2014-15.
The decline in spending comes at a time when the government is emphasising on raising domestic output to cut costly oil imports.
India had spent $109.1 billion on oil and gas imports in 2017-18 while the cost for the current fiscal is projected to rise to about $130 billion.