ONGC will invest Rs. 81,800 crore on projects envisaging the exploration of new discoveries in production and checking the decline in output from ageing fields.
Out of the 15 projects currently undertaken for development, seven are complete and eight are under execution. The total cost of these projects will be around Rs. 40,573 crore. This will increase the production to 45.6 million tonnes of crude and 67.4 billion cubic metres of gas.
ONGC is also focusing on two other projects: one in Daman and the other, KG-DWN-98/2, in Krishna-Godavari basin. The company will invest Rs. 5,200 crore in the Daman project. It will produce a maximum of 8.5 mscmpd and is expected to start production by July 2016. The output in KG-DWN-98/2 will commence in 2018.
The company is employing technology to understand the natural decline in ageing fields. A total of Rs. 41,316 crore capital expenditure has been planned for such interventions across 24 projects, of which 19 have been completed.
Meanwhile, ONGC Videsh Ltd has signed a Letter of Intent with PetroVietnam for participation in exploration of two to three additional oil and gas blocks in offshore Vietnam, subject to technical and commercial viability and requisite approvals. In 2006, the company got two exploration blocks in Vietnam: Block 127 & Block 128. Block 127 was relinquished after completing the work programme while Block 128 is presently under exploration.
