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Canadian subsurface engineering firm VZFOX plans to establish its India base in Bengaluru by the end of 2026, with an initial team of five employees, as it looks to tap opportunities in the country’s oil and gas sector.
The Calgary-based company is entering India through the Team Canada Trade Mission, with plans to gradually expand its local workforce as business opportunities develop. VZFOX will focus on building relationships with Indian oil and gas operators, engineering companies, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firms, and project developers. “We have been deeply rooted in the Canadian oil and gas space for the past 20 years. We are looking to expand our reach overseas, particularly in India and the MENA region. The India story for us has been on the radar since 2024,” said Vick Saxon, managing partner and director at VZFOX told the bussinessline during an interaction.
The company had been more focused on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region before the West Asia crisis, while continuing to explore opportunities in India, Saxon said. Growing energy demand and efforts to improve domestic oil and gas production make India an important market for the company, he added.
“The interesting thing about India is that it has a growing need for energy and the government is already trying to build efficiency and increase production from the domestic fields,” Saxon said. VZFOX has held discussions with private-sector companies in India seeking technical support to manage their operations and address the challenges associated with ageing and declining reservoirs. “India is still relying on 80% of its energy sources from outside. The time has come to look at existing oil and gas fields and find opportunities to build some efficiency,” Saxon said.
The company sees opportunities in field reactivation, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and improved oil recovery (IOR), as well as newer technologies that can extend the productive life of existing assets. These techniques can help operators assess whether additional hydrocarbons can be recovered from mature fields and determine the technical and economic viability of further investment. “We are looking at opportunities for reactivations or EOR or IOR techniques, or new techniques to resuscitate and breathe some more life into existing assets,” Saxon said.
The Bengaluru base will serve a dual purpose, supporting VZFOX’s market development in India while also contributing to its global operations. “We are in the process of setting up a small team of up to five people by the end of this year that can serve a dual purpose. One, to provide some local presence for potential interactions and help build our brand in India, and secondly, to work as a global capability centre (GCC) for us overseas, wherein we could tap in,” Saxon added.
The company plans to build a long-term presence in India rather than pursue a short-term market-entry strategy. It is focusing on establishing a limited number of relationships that can generate recurring technical assignments, rather than committing to a revenue target at this stage. VZFOX brings more than two decades of experience in subsurface, reservoir and injection engineering, with clients across North America and other markets. Its Bengaluru base is expected to serve as the starting point for its India operations, with further hiring dependent on the scale and pace of business development.
Published on October 15, 2026
