Indian public sector petroleum company Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) today announced it would invest Rs 19,338 crore in oil and gas hunt during the current fiscal, an increase 10 per cent more than its investment of Rs 17,651 crore in the previous year.
"Improving the reserve replacement ratio by intensifying exploratory efforts is the company's first priority," company chairman R S Sharma told shareholders in its AGM today.
"Improving recovery factor, arresting decline in mature fields and expeditious development of discovered fields are the other priorities," he added.
ONGC declared Rs 14 per share final dividend for 2007-08, which is over and above Rs 18 per share interim dividend in December. Sharma said ONGC will invest over $5 billion in the development of gas finds in eastern offshore Krishna Godavari basin blocks KG-DWN-98/2 and KG-OS-DW4.
The company's overseas arm ONGC Videsh is targeting 39.47 million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas from overseas properties. ONGC's refinery subsidiary Mangalore Refinery is on track for expanding its capacity to 15 million tonnes by 2010.