ONGC to invest Rs 13,000 cr for exploration work in Assam

New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is planning to invest Rs 13,000 crores for exploration work across Assam in the next five years, an official release said. The public sector company said that it has also signed an agreement with the Assam government in this regard. "ONGC has signed an MoU with the Government of Assam for investing more than Rs 13,000 during next five years in Assam for enhancing its exploration and production (E&P) activities," ONGC said.

220 oil and gas wells on the anvil

The investment will be used for drilling more than 220 oil and gas wells — a mix of development and exploration ones — across the state, it said. "ONGC is giving impetus to its activities in alignment with the Prime Minister's call for reducing import by 10 per cent by 2022, and the North East Hydrocarbon Vision 2030," the release said. ONGC has recently secured a green nod to drill six development wells in five mining lease blocks in Jorhat and Golaghat districts of Assam at an estimated cost of Rs 240 crore. And the company has sought permission to drill 12 such wells. ONGC has discovered fuel in Babejia well under the Assam Shelf Basin during 2018-19.

ONGC has spent Rs 1,50,000 cr in five years on E&P

ONGC had produced 0.797 million metric tonnes of oil and 407.40 million metric standard cubic meters of gas from its operations in the state during the 2018-19 fiscal. It is currently executing 27 projects across the country at an investment of over Rs 86,000 crore. These include 18 development and nine infrastructure projects, the release said. ONGC has already pumped in about Rs 1,50,000 crore during the last five years in exploration and production, while 10 projects worth Rs 13,000 crore were completed in 2018-19, the release said. In this period, it completed six pipeline projects in Assam at an investment of Rs 152.32 crore.

IGGL will lay 1,656 km of gas pipelines in NE

The company owns 20 per cent equity capital in Indradhanush Gas Grid Ltd (IGGL), a joint venture company of ONGC, IOCL, GAIL, OIL and NRL. IGGL will lay 1,656 km of gas pipelines covering all the north-eastern states with a capex of Rs 9,265 crore, it said. ONGC posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 7,043 crore in the April-June quarter as against Rs 9,318 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal. The consolidated gross revenue in the first quarter also declined marginally to Rs 1,09,515 crore from Rs 1,10,367 crore in the year-ago period. The company produced 24.23 million tonnes of crude oil and 25.81 billion cubic metres of natural gas from its domestic fields in 2018-19. Another 10.1 million tonnes of oil and 4.736 billion cubic metres of gas was produced from its overseas assets, the release added.