Digital twins, machine learning and advanced process control run across the Rajasthan fields as the per barrel cost holds steady through a 16 percent production decline

Bengaluru: Vedanta Oil and Gas Limited (NSE: VOGL | BSE : 544782), the upstream oil and gas company held its Rajasthan operating cost broadly steady in the last financial year even as output from its ageing fields declined. The company attributes the result to operating discipline and an expanding layer of digital and artificial intelligence systems across its operations.

For the year to 31 March 2026, the Rajasthan operating cost was USD 16.4 a barrel, against USD 16.6 the year before. Across the oil and gas business, operating cost was USD 15.5 per barrel of oil equivalent, down from USD 15.6. Over the same period, gross operated production fell to 87.2 thousand barrels of oil equivalent a day from 103.2, a decline of 16 percent that the company attributes to the natural ageing of its fields. Rajasthan alone was down by the same margin.

In a maturing field, the cost of producing each barrel usually rises, because the fixed cost of running the operation is carried by fewer barrels. Here the per barrel cost moved the other way.

The company points to three measures behind the cost performance: optimised polymer injection, a more cost effective approach to chemical spend, and efficiency in maintenance activities. Maintenance is where its digital and AI tooling comes in.

“A rod pump usually tells you it is going to fail before it does. The signal was always in the data. What has changed is how fast it reaches the engineer who can act on it. Running digital twins, predictive analytics and advanced process control across our Rajasthan fields is a large part of how we have kept lifting costs steady while the fields naturally decline,” said a spokesperson from Vedanta Oil and Gas Limited.