NEW DELHI: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) plans to invest over $8.8 billion in bringing to production its much-touted KG-basin oil and gas discoveries by 2018-19.

ONGC has divided 12 oil and gas finds in the block KG-DWN-98/2 or KG-D5 and gas discovery in an adjacent G-4 block the Bay of Bengal into three clusters to quickly bring them to production, a senior company official said.

The 7,294.6 sq km deepsea KG-D5 block has been broadly categorised into Northern Discovery Area (NDA - 3,800.6sqkm) and Southern Discovery Area (SDA - 3,494sqkm).

The company plans to develop the 11 oil and gas finds in the NDA together with one gas find in G-4 block at an investment of $8.843 billion, he said.

"The investment will be for drilling 45 development wells, an array of sub-sea pipelines carrying gas to a fixed platform for processing and a pipeline to carry gas form it to an onshore terminal. Oil will be transported to a floating production system (FPSO) that will transfer it to ships for taking to refineries," he said.

ONGC plans to develop the discoveries in the block in three clusters — 14.5 million standard cubic meters per day of gas for 15 years from Cluster-1 comprising of D&E finds of NDA in KG-D5 block and G-4 find in the a neighbouring area.

Cluster-2A mainly comprises of oil finds of A2, P1, M3, M1 and G-2-2 in NDA which can produce 75,000 barrels per day (3.75 million tonnes per annum).

Cluster 2B, which is made up of four gas finds — R1, U3, U1, and A1 in NDA — envisages a peak output of 14 mmscmd of gas, with cumulative production of 32.5 bcm of gas in 14 years.

"We plan to get first gas by mid-2018 and first oil by mid-2019," he said.

Cluster-3 is the UD-1 gas discovery in SDA. "UD-1 lies in water depth of 2400-3200 meters and there is no technology to produce from such depths. And so Cluster-3 is presently not being pursued for development," he said.

Gas produced from Cluster-1 is proposed to be taken to a Fixed Platform in shallow water depths through an 18-inch, 16.1 km pipeline and treated and subsequently evacuated to Odalarevu onshore terminal in Andhra Pradesh through 20-inch, 35.5km pipeline for sales.

Oil produced from Cluster-2 is proposed to be taken on to an FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) anchored in high-sea through an 18-inch, 21.5 km pipeline. While oil will then be transfered to tankers for transportation to refineries, gas produced alongside will be evacuated on to Fixed platform through an 18-inch, 21.4 km pipeline.

The official said there is an existing terminal at Odalarevu, for processing of hydrocarbons received from offshore fields: G-1, Vasishta and S-I.