ONGC to speed up development of KG gas finds

Company has made 11 oil and gas discoveries in the Block KG-DWN-98/2

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) will fast-track development of natural gas discoveries in its Krishna Godavari basin block with first gas planned no later than April 1, 2018.

ONGC has made 11 oil and gas discoveries in the Block KG-DWN-98/2, which sits next to Reliance Industries' KG-D6 Block and Gujarat State Petroleum Corp's Deendayal gas field. The block is divided into a Northern Discovery Area (NDA) and Southern Discovery Area (SDA).

It plans to invest $9 billion in producing from discoveries in NDA, a company official said here.

ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Dinesh K Sarraf recently held an on-site review meeting of Block KG-DWN-98/2 or KG-D5 and fixed April 1, 2018 as date for start of production.

"The company's internal assessment was that gas can start flowing from the block only in 2021-22 but the Chairman wanted the development to be fast-tracked and it is now being planned for 2018," he said.

ONGC is looking at producing 2.5-3 million tonnes of oil per annum and 9-10 million standard cubic metres per day of gas from the Northern Development Area of KG-D5 block.

NDA holds an estimated 92.30 million tonnes of oil reserves and 97.568 billion cubic metres of inplace gas reserves spread over seven fields.

The official said ONGC has submitted to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) a Declaration of Commerciality (DoC) for the oil find in the NDA and a detailed field development plan will be submitted by year end.

"The challenge now is to get the FDP approved and award contracts within 2015," he said.

ONGC bought 90 per cent interest in Block KG-DWN-98/2 from Cairn Energy India Ltd in 2005. Cairn still holds 10 per cent in the block. Before selling most of its stake and giving away operatorship of the block, Cairn made four discoveries in the area -- Padmavati, Kanakdurga, N-1 and R-1 (Annapurna).

Subsequently, ONGC made six significant discoveries -- E-1, A1, U1, W1, D-1 and KT-1 in NDA and the first ultra-deepwater discovery UD-1 at a record depth of 2,841 metres.

The NDA comprises discoveries like Padmawati, Kanadurga, D, E, U, A, while the ultra deepsea UD find lies in SDA.

ONGC, the official said, is looking at producing oil and gas from NDA using a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit.

An investment plan for UD-1 will be submitted separately, he added.

Block KG-DWN-98/2, comprising 7,294.60 square kilometres, was originally awarded to Cairn in the first round of auction under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) in April 2000. Of this, 2,4623 sq km has been relinquished and ONGC currently holds 3,800.6 sq km in NDA and 3,494 sq km in SDA.