New Delhi, Jun 30 (IANS): India has seen a substantial rise in crude oil production in the last six months, buoyed by the production increase in the private sector.

The latest figure for crude oil production released for May was recorded at 5.8 percent, an increase for the sixth consecutive month.

According to government figures, private sector firms like Cairn India and Reliance produced 63.7 percent more crude oil, at 691,300 tonnes, in May. In contrast, Oil India Limited and ONGC had a shortfall of 25 percent and 5 percent in production for the same period.

Cairn produced about 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) from its Rajasthan fields and Reliance 30,000 bpd from its KG basin oilfields.

Further, they had gone beyond their planned production targets for the month, compared to public sector state companies.

As per to officials, the increase in output from Cairn India's Mangala oil fields was the major reason for the increase in crude production, which will be ramping up production to reach 125,000 bpd in the later half of 2010.