KOCHI: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will invest Rs 21,528 crore to develop India’s deepest gas discovery by 2022-23, helping it double output from its prime KG basin block. The exploration major had invested Rs 34,012 crore last year in bringing to production 10 oil and gas discoveries in its Bay of Bengal block. The company is in the process of appointing a consultant to assist in developing the ultra-deep sea gas discovery.
“We have submitted a declaration of commerciality for the discovery. We will submit a final investment plan by end-2017 and hope to bring the discovery to production by 2022-23,” said Tapas Kumar Sengupta, director (offshore), ONGC.
The oil explorer plans to drill nine wells on the discovery that lies in water depths of 2,400-3,200 metres and will produce a peak output of 19 million standard cubic metres a day. The company had previously decided to develop other discoveries in KG-D5 block and leave the ultra-deep sea find in the same block for a later date as it thought there was no technology to produce gas from such water depths.
“A recent expression of interest meeting we had for developing the KG finds saw several consultants offering solutions for such water depths. Consultants who have shown to ONGC that discoveries deeper than ultra deep sea-1 have been put to production in recent times, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico,” Sengupta added.
Last year, the company finalised a $5.07 billion plan for developing finds by 2019-20. First gas production is envisaged by June 2019 and oil would start flowing
from March 2020.
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