Big-Oil Spending Cuts Lower Costs at Top India Explorer ONGC

  • ONGC says exploration expenses to fall 20% this year
  • Company is boosting spending even as BP, Shell cut back
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The worst commodity slump in a generation has a silver lining for India’s state-run energy explorer.

Oil & Natural Gas Corp. predicts exploration costs will drop a fifth as fees for rigs and vessels moderate after businesses including BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc curbed outlays. That could mean a saving of 49 billion rupees ($749 million) on planned exploration spending of 245 billion rupees in the year through March 2016, Bloomberg calculations based on company estimates show.