The oil and gas industry has been instrumental in fuelling the rapid growth of the Indian economy. India has total reserves of 775 million metric tonnes (MT) of crude oil and 1074 billion cubic metres (BCM) of natural gas as on April 1, 2009, according to the Ministry of Petroleum. India's domestic demand for oil and gas is also on the rise.

India has significant oil and gas reserves and just over 60 per cent of its potential in the oil sector has been explored so far. The government of India has been taking many progressive measures to create a conducive policy and regulatory framework for attracting investments.The country made extensive oil discoveries in the recent years. The most noteworthy of these discoveries are located in the offshore east coast basins of Krishna-Godavari and Mahanadi-NEC basins; Western offshore and onland in the Rajasthan, Cambay and onland Assam-Arakan basins.

Niko Resources, Canoro Resources and Geo-Global Resources are the three Canadian Exploration and Production companies, which are present in India for the past decade and a half. However, the last New Exploration & Licensing Policy saw the successful bids of two more Canadian E&P companies, Bengal Energy Ltd and Primera Energy Resources Ltd., both from Calgary.

Drilling Rigs from Stewart & Stevenson have been operating in India for quite some time. Canadian drilling services companies like Newsco and testing and well service companies like Techno-Canada are also present in this market. Some other companies from Canada in India are DeGoyler and MacNaughton, NetSafety Monitoring Inc and Q’Max Solutions Inc.  There is a huge opportunity across the oil & gas spectrum in India.