West Bengal finds a place in the oil map with ONGC’s Bengal Basin: Pradhan

New Delhi: Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) took a major step by commencing oil production from the well Asokenagar-1, Bengal Basin. The well Asoknagar-1 was completed as an oil producer under an early-monetisation plan issued by the government. This makes ONGC having discovered and put to production seven out of the eight producing basins of India covering 83 percent of established oil & gas reserves. ONGC is India's largest oil and gas producer contributing 72 percent of the country's hydrocarbon production.

'Bengal Basin' 8th oil-producing basin of India, which was dedicated to the nation by Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on December 20. While dedicating the Asokenagar discovery, Pradhan said that the discovery would play a role for India's energy security. He stated that the discovery would be definitely added to our commitment towards Hon'ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi's clarion call for reducing oil import dependence.

Pradhan congratulated team ONGC and said that with this discovery, around seven decades of relentless endeavours by scientists and engineers of India have borne fruits, giving new hope for robust development of West Bengal. Bengal Basin finally looks set to find a place on the oil & gas map of the world.

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The well Asokenagar-1 has heralded the end of the painstaking search for hydrocarbons in the region by ONGC by sending its first hydrocarbon consignment produced during well testing to IOCL's Haldia Oil Refinery done earlier on November 5, 2020.

Re-energised by this discovery and eager to script more success stories in the newly awarded OALP acreages in the Bengal Basin, ONGC has already set aside a sling of fresh geoscientific activities. These comprise an appraisal programme of Asokenagar discovery for an area of about 739 sq. km. including 3D seismic, Low-Frequency Passive Seismic (LFPS) Survey and drilling of two wells, besides acquiring roughly 1,300 LKM of 2D, 2,900 SKM of 3D and drilling of 13 wells in the next three years in the newly awarded acreages. Bengal Basin is spread across nearly 1.22 lakh square kilometres, with nearly two-thirds of it falling under the waters of the Bay of Bengal. Till now, ONGC has invested Rs. 3,361 crore to explore hydrocarbon in the Bengal Basin. Rs 425 crore will be spent on exploration activities in the basin in the coming two years.

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