ONGC to Invest Over $5B in Offshore Gas Finds

Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) plans to invest over $5b to produce 25 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) of gas from its eastern offshore Krishna Godavari fields by 2013. The state-run firm submitted to the regulator Director General of Hydrocarbons an appraisal program of the discoveries it had made in KG offshore basin, putting the in-place reserves at 6.37 Trillion cubic feet (Tcf), industry sources said. Besides natural gas, ONGC also plans to produce 8,000 barrels of oil per day from the fields. The reserve estimates and production plan in ONGC's appraisal program, however, do not include its ultra-deepwater UD-1 discovery in KG-DWN-98/2 block adjacent to Reliance Industries' prolific gas discovery block KG-D6. ONGC estimates another 2-14 Tcf of reserves in the UD-1 discovery, sources reportedly said, adding half-a-dozen other finds in the same KG-DWN-98/2 block have been clubbed with other discoveries in the region like G-29, GS-4 and Vashistha. The production planned is better than previously announced plans of 12-15 mmscmd. Sources indicated the company's appraisal plan outlines integrated development of the discoveries in shallow to deepwater (northern) part of the KG-DWN-98/2 block along with other fields in adjoining nomination acreages. While ONGC has 90 per cent stake in the KG-DWN-98/3 block, it has 100 per cent stake in the adjoining acreage which it got from the government on a nomination basis. Cairn India has the remaining 10 per cent in KG-DWN-98/3. Norsk Hydro of Norway and Petrobras of Brazil are to take 15 to 30 per cent stake in the block. [Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com]