ONGC to invest Rs 1,285 cr in offshore near Bombay High

Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), the country's biggest explorer and producer of oil and gas, has approved an investment of Rs 1,285 crore to develop marginal off-shore fields located on the north west of Bombay High, the country's largest off-shore field, a company statement said.

The foreign component in the investment is close to Rs 1,240 crore.

The exploration company has also made five oil and gas discoveries in the eastern offshore and the northeast. The discoveries include a gas find in the Mahanadi basin block where 3-4 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves have already been established.

"ONGC made a second discovery in Mahanadi basin in MN-DWN-98/3 block on the east coast of India, about 60-km off Paradeep coast (in Orissa)," the company statement said.

The development of the B-cluster marginal fields "� B-46, B-48, B-105 & B-188 "� is expected to be completed by April 2010. The total in-place gas reserves in these fields is estimated to be 11.298 billion cubic metres (bcm).

Post-development, the fields are expected to produce 1.636 million standard cubic metres per day (mscmd) of gas and 2,890 barrels per day of condensate "� a low-density mixture of hydrocarbons present in raw natural gas produced from many natural gas fields.

Over a period of 12 years, the cumulative gas and condensate production is expected to be around 5.273 bcm and 1,684 million cubic metres, respectively.

ONGC has also reported the completion of the redevelopment of Bombay High South by end May, 19 months ahead of schedule. Work on the project was started in October 2001.