Oil India Ltd has drawn up plans to start exploratory drilling in the Ganga valley by the end of the next financial year.
The 14,000 sq km Ganga valley is in west Uttar Pradesh and is known as the Kashipur petroleum exploration licence area.
The drilling operations, according to Oil India chairman & managing director N N Gogoi, will be of a wild cat nature since not much sub-surface data of the region is available.
Although some two-dimension seismic surveys have been carried out and data processed and interpreted, Oil India has decided to conduct additional seismic surveys in the area to draw up the exploratory drilling programme in a clearly defined manner.
Gogoi said the contract for seismic surveys has been awarded to the Rail India Technical & Economic Services (RITES) and Spetz Geophysica of Russia.
The two companies are expected to start operations from March this year. He said only the preliminary seismic surveys, had been taken up in the area, but no exploration.
However, beyond this area, the Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) had conducted some activity. Oil India had acquired this data from ONGC to gather more information about the regional geology, Gogoi said.
