ONGC K-G basin growth best in two decades

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Krishna-Godavari basin spanning an area of 28,000 km on land and 1.45 lakh sq km offshore has made rapid strides in the field of oil and natural gas exploration and production during the last two decades.

While the ONGC itself is the top performer in the country contributing 84 per cent of the total oil and gas production, the Krishna-Godavari asset is said to be the best in its overall performance.

Talking to Business Standard, KG basin asset manager C Lal said that as on date 400 onland wells and 113 offshore wells have been drilled with an overall success ratio of 1:2.59. These exploratory wells led to the discovery of 46 small to medium-sized hydro-carbon fields with 155.90 mmt (O+OEG) of initial in-place reserves.

"Gains from exploratory efforts put in by the earlier exploration entrepreneurs in the basin, a deliberate strategic shift in exploration gave us dividends and renewed our zeal to extend exploratory pursuits into more challenging areas," said Lal.

During the year 2003-04, it achieved nearly 3 lakh metric tonnes of oil and 1,927.5 billion cubic metre of gas production, he added.

The recent exploratory efforts in the basin obtained from Kaikalur-17, Razole-7, Kavitam-2 and Penumadam in West Godavari and Rangapuram-3 and Sitarampuram-2 wells in East Godavari have widened the areas for exploration.

Shallow gas find in Sitarampuram-2 and multi-layered gas find in Tirupati sandstone in Penumadam-2 and in Pasarlapudi formation in Razole-7 wells too have opened up new and potential exploration corridors for ONGC in the basin. Blocks obtained under NELP-1 AND3 are under assessment for deciding the future exploration plans.