GSPC strikes gas in Ankleshwar, asks DGH to certify

Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) has struck a gas reserve in an onland exploration block at Ankleshwar in the state.

Confirming the discovery, a top GSPC official, “We are awaiting certification from the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), following which we will be able to assess the development cost, among other things.”

State-owned GSPC declined to give a preliminary estimate on the reserves in the gas reservoir until the upstream regulator certified it as a discovery.

According to sources, production testing of the Ankleshwar 41-S well in the Cambay Basin’s onland block CB-ONN-2003/2 indicates the potential for production of several million cubic feet of natural gas per day. In addition, a negligible quantity of oil also flowed to the surface during production testing. The block is located south of the northern bank of the Narmada river.

SPC is the operator of the CB-ONN-2003/2 block in a consortium that includes Jubilant Oil & Gas Exploration, GAIL and GeoGlobal Resources of Canada. The block was awarded under the fifth round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-V), in July 2005.

GSPC has a 50 per cent stake in the block, while GAIL has 20 per cent participating interest, Jubilant Capital has 20 per cent and GeoGlobal Resources holds the remaining 10 per cent. GSPC drilled 11 exploratory wells in the block before tasting success at the Ankleshwar 41-S well, it is learnt.

If the DGH certifies the find as a discovery, it will be GSPC’s second major gas exploratory success. It had announced a massive discovery in a shallow water offshore block off the Andhra Pradesh coast, in the Krishna-Godavari Basin, in June 2005. The DGH has certified two trillion cubic ft of gas reserves in GSPC’s Deendayal blocks in the KG basin. Presently, exploration is underway in the GSPC-operated block, KG-OSN 2001/3, located in the Deendayal West field and till June 16, wells had been drilled in the area.

The company recently tied up a Rs 3,000-crore term loan from a consortium of 15 banks, led by Bank of Baroda, to finance development of the K-G Basin discovery, christened the Deen Dayal field.