ONGC enters MoU to develop India’s first geothermal field development project
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Union Territory of Ladakh and the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh, to develop the country’s first geothermal field development project.
The MoU inked will be a step towards creating a carbon-neutral Ladakh. The geothermal resource development can revolutionise farming in Ladakh, which is now totally dependent for supply of fresh vegetables, fruits from outside the Union Territory for the entire year.
The company has planned this field development in Ladakh in three phases. Phase-I involves exploratory-cum-production drilling of wells up to 500 mtr depth and setting up a pilot plant up to one MW power capacity.
Phase-II will involve deeper and lateral exploration of geothermal reservoir by drilling of optimal number of wells and setting up a higher capacity demo plant and preparing a detailed project report (DPR).
Phase-III will include commercial development of the geothermal plant. The total project cost will be estimated after exploration activities are completed.
