ONGC Ltd has discovered two new oil wells in Patan district of Gujarat. The wells have estimated oil reserves of over one million tonnes. The find was made at a time when the upstream major's Mehsana production unit in the state was witnessing a fall in output.
The corporation started its first exploratory work in Patan, nearly 80 km from Ahmedabad, after receiving positive indication from pre-drilling studies.
The output of ONGC at Mehsana, which was around 8,000-9,000 tonnes a day when the unit was set up in 1968, came down to 6,000 tonnes a day over the years. Similarly, the annual production has come down from 3 million tonnes to 2.25 million tonnes.
The oil found in north Gujarat is typically waxy in nature and therefore the recoverability is very low.
ONGC had already produced over 50 per cent of the recoverable oil reserves. The company's Mehsana unit is using various state-of-the-art technologies, including in situ combustion technology to improve recovery rate of oil found in Mehsana.