ONGC scripts Rs 9000 cr Bombay High funding

ONGC, the biggest player in the country's crude oil exploration and production business, is planning to invest around Rs 9,000 crore in phase two of the redevelopment of Bombay High.

The field produces about 70 per cent of domestic crude oil of close to 3,00,000 barrels per day.

This is in addition to the Rs 3,000 crore that the company is spending on replacing the process platform in Bombay High North that was destroyed in a major fire last year. The new platform is expected to be installed by the end of the year.

The plan, expected to be kicked off in 2007, will restrict the declining production from the field by increasing the recoverable reserves to 41 per cent from the present 31 per cent and includes the development of 17 new wells and two new process platforms, said a senior ONGC executive.

The plan worked out by ONGC will lay emphasis on layerwise exploration of hydrocarbons to enhance oil recovery to the tune of 35 per cent from the 32 per cent envisaged for the first phase of the redevelopment plan.

Under the first phase of the plan, in between 2000 and 2007, the company plans to invest about Rs 8,300 crore in drilling 210 new wells and installing 10 new platforms and two process platforms. A fourth of the production from the field comes from the new wells.

ONGC is also planning to invest close to Rs 10,000 crore in developing the 29 marginal fields in the Mumbai High and Bassein area.

These fields are expected to produce 12-15 metric standard cubic metre of natural gas per day (mmscmd) and close to six million tonnes of oil per annum by 2012.