India unlocks new gas-bearing zone in Rajasthan’s Dandewala field, boosting domestic energy push

India has unlocked a new natural gas-bearing zone in Rajasthan’s Dandewala field, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday, marking another step in the country’s efforts to raise domestic energy production and cut dependence on imports.

In a post on X, Puri said state-run Oil India had successfully discovered gas flow from the shallower Sanu Formation in the Dandewala field located in Rajasthan.

“India’s quest to strengthen domestic production of energy scripts a new chapter in Rajasthan,” Puri said, adding that the discovery would provide momentum to the country’s push towards energy self-sufficiency under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The discovery comes at a time when India is seeking to strengthen energy security amid volatile global crude oil and gas markets, geopolitical tensions in West Asia, and rising domestic energy demand.

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India imports more than 85 per cent of its crude oil requirements and around half of its natural gas needs, making boosting local production a strategic priority for the government.

The Dandewala field is located in the hydrocarbon-rich Rajasthan basin, which has emerged as one of India’s key onshore oil and gas producing regions over the past two decades. While the basin is better known for crude oil output, recent exploration efforts have increasingly focused on expanding gas production from both conventional and tighter geological formations.

Oil India, one of the country’s largest upstream energy companies, has been intensifying exploration and enhanced recovery efforts across several basins as India aims to reduce import dependence and expand the share of natural gas in its energy mix to 15 per cent by 2030 from around 6 per cent currently.

The latest discovery could also support supplies to industries and city gas distribution networks in northern and western India, where demand for cleaner-burning fuel has been rising steadily.

The government has in recent years accelerated reforms in exploration licensing, opened more sedimentary basins for bidding, and encouraged state-run explorers to deploy advanced drilling and seismic technologies to improve domestic hydrocarbon recovery.