Oil India's Godavari-1 Well Flowed Gas at Up to 200,000 Standard Cubic Metres a Day From a Formation Never Appraised Before

Oil India’s Godavari-1 well in the Krishna-Godavari Basin, off India’s east coast, flowed natural gas at about 100,000 standard cubic metres a day and up to 200,000 during continuous testing, the company reported on 23 October 2026. (A standard cubic metre is a volume of gas measured at fixed reference conditions, so that flows from different wells can be compared.) The gas came from the Matsyapuri formation, a rock layer the reports describe as previously unappraised, at 2,024 to 2,027 metres.

The test began on 16 October 2026. Reports of the company’s statement say it is preparing to test the next higher zone in the same well.

What the well produced

Offshore Engineer’s report of the company’s statement gives the numbers. The gas flowed to the surface at about 100,000 standard cubic metres a day, or one lakh, and reached a maximum of 200,000 during continuous testing. The well also produced about 170 barrels a day of condensate, with an API gravity of 55.8 degrees, and some water. Wellhead pressure during the test was 1,815 psi.

Condensate is a light liquid hydrocarbon that usually occurs alongside natural gas, and SLB’s industry glossary says its API gravity is typically 50 degrees or higher. API gravity is a scale from the American Petroleum Institute in which a higher number means a lighter liquid. A reading of 55.8 puts the Godavari-1 liquid in that light range.

An appraisal well in a block won in a 2019 bidding round

Godavari-1 is an appraisal well, which SLB defines as a well drilled after a successful exploration well to work out the size of an oil or gas field and the best way to develop it. The block is KG-DSF/GSKW/2018, in shallow water, and Oil India is its sole operator, according to Offshore Engineer and Offshore Technology. Neither report gives the water depth or names a partner.

Oil India won the block in March 2019 in the second Discovered Small Field bid round. Business Standard’s report on the award, dated 11 March 2019, calls the offshore area KG/OSDSF/GSKW/2018, covering 93.902 square km in the Krishna-Godavari basin, and reports the company saying it was Oil India’s first foray into Krishna-Godavari offshore. The same award included an onshore block in Tripura, a state where, according to a tuput profile of Tripura, gas-fired plants supply most of the electricity.

The policy behind small fields

The Discovered Small Field policy was notified on 14 October 2015, the Cabinet’s release on the second round says. It lets companies bid for discoveries that ONGC and Oil India had made but not developed. Indian Infrastructure’s account of the policy says the fields come with freedom to market and price their output and with lower taxes, because their small size had made them uneconomical.

The Cabinet release put 60 fields on offer in the second round: 22 of ONGC’s, five of Oil India’s, 12 relinquished from earlier exploration blocks and 21 left over from the first round. The round that followed offered 25 contract areas covering 59 discovered fields. Bidding ran from 9 August 2018 to 30 January 2019 and drew 145 bids from 39 companies, Indian Infrastructure reports.

What a flow test tells you

A production test measures how fast a well can flow under controlled conditions. It does not measure how much gas the rock holds. Inspenet’s report on the discovery says the test rates alone do not allow the total recoverable volume to be worked out.

Oil India has not disclosed an estimate of the resources in the formation, Free Press Journal and Inspenet report, and Free Press Journal adds that no timeline for commercial production has been given. The test of the higher zone is the next step, and none of the reports available as of 29 October 2026 give a date for it.

Where the gas fits in India’s energy plans

Free Press Journal notes that the government aims to raise natural gas’s share of India’s energy mix to 15 per cent by 2030, from about 6 per cent now. Inspenet gives the same two figures.

On 31 July 2026 the Union Cabinet approved Samudra Manthan, the National Offshore Exploration Scheme, with an outlay of Rs 84,084 crore to be spent up to the 2030 to 2031 financial year. The Cabinet’s release expects it to add more than 600 million metric tonnes of oil equivalent to reserves. Outlook Business lists its components as seismic surveys, deepwater and ultra-deepwater exploratory drilling, drilling in frontier basins and shared offshore production infrastructure. Godavari-1 is a shallow-water well in a block won in 2019, and none of the reports links it to the scheme.

Gas is one part of the supply picture; the numbers on India’s installed solar capacity cover another. Natural gas also reaches city streets as a fuel, and Delhi’s air measurements record the Supreme Court’s July 1998 directions to convert the city’s bus fleet to compressed natural gas.

The company behind the well

Oil India’s website dates the company’s legacy to 1889, when it says the first commercial discovery of crude oil in the country was made at Digboi in Assam. Independent India’s first hydrocarbon discovery was at Naharkatia in 1953, the website adds.

In the financial year 2025 to 2026, Indian Chemical News reports, Oil India drilled 74 wells, its highest annual tally, and its reserve replacement ratio was above 1, meaning it added more reserves than it produced. The reports available as of 29 October 2026 do not include a result from the higher zone in Godavari-1.