Oil & Natural Gas (India) Targets Cuban Oil Production Within a Year

Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Oil & Natural Gas Corp., India's biggest oil and gas explorer, said it expects to start producing oil from fields in Cuba within a year as it seeks to compensate for slowing output growth from ageing wells in India.

Oil & Natural Gas and its partners, Spain's Repsol YPF SA and Norsk Hydro ASA, are waiting for approval from the Cuban government to go ahead with exploring for oil in six areas on the Caribbean island, R.S. Butola, Oil & Natural Gas's managing director for overseas operations, said in an interview in Johannesburg, South Africa on Sept. 27.

``We will explore more extensively in the area, which may prove quite promising,'' Butola said while attending the World Petroleum Congress. Based on an initial estimate by Repsol, the six areas could hold 4 billion barrels of oil, Butola said.

Oil & Natural Gas needs to raise output to retain its position as the largest supplier of crude oil and gas in the country. Oil imports by India, Asia's third-biggest consumer of the fuel, are set to rise as refiners expand capacity to meet fuel demand. India imports 70 percent of its crude oil.

Bloomberg