ONGC may up KG gas find estimate

Reserves could be more than one trillion cubic feet

The size of the recent gas find in the Krishna-Godavari basin by the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) could be more than the previously estimated one trillion cubic feet (tcf).

"The discovery could be bigger than the Cairn Energy discovery in a nearby block," an official said.

UK-based Cairn Energy had said the size of its find in the KG-DWN-98/2 block was around 1 TCF.

The final tests are being conducted and the exact quantity of gas in the exploration block will be known only after the well is drilled to its target depth of 2,500 metres.

However, it is estimated that the discovery will be more than 1 TCF. Reliance Industries, which had also discovered gas in the area, estimates its find at around 14 TCF.

While officials refused to hazard a guess on the size of the discovery, they insisted it was a commercial discovery and had brightened the prospects of further gas finds in the region, making it probably the biggest gas-bearing basin in the country.

ONGC is upbeat about the discovery since it has another 12 blocks in the region.

An official announcement about the discovery and its size will be made only after the ONGC issue is out of the way. As per the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) guidelines, the corporation cannot make any announcement in this regard till the public offer of its issue is made.

The first signs of gas presence in the area appeared last month when ONGC's drillrig 'Sagar Vijay' encountered large gas-bearing structures at a depth of 1,580-1,720 metres, while drilling its maiden well in the G4-AB location.

In 2002, Reliance had struck 14 TCF of gas reserves in KG-DWN-98/3 block, off the Andhra Pradesh coast. Before that, Cairn had established 1 tcf of reserves in KG-DWN-98/2, south of the Reliance gas block.