ONGC's Gulf-A reserves pegged at 11.34 mn barrels

With none of its predecessors-all MNCs, succeeding in submitting a development plan, state run Oil and Natural Gas Company (ONGC) received yet another shot in the arm as the government of India cleared the decks for the development plan of Gulf-A discovery area for the joint venture block CB-OS-1.

The area's recoverable hydrocarbon production is pegged at 1.89 MMm3 or about 11.34 ,million barrels (MMbbls) in 10 yrs with peak production of oil estimated at 1500 m3 per day or 9435 barrels per day.

"If we take a conservative figure of USD 50 per barrel for next ten years, the block will generate revenue of 236 USD, after taking away the capital and operative cost," said P B Pandey, GM and Block Manager for western region, ONGC told Business Standard.

The volume of hydrocarbon in place is 5.808 MMm3 (approx. 36.5 million barrels).

"This is the maiden ONGC operated JV development plan that has been approved by government," Pandey.

ONGC has meanwhile raised its stake to 55.26 per cent from March 27 this year, with Tata Petrodyne Ltd holding 6 per cent and HOEC holding remaining 38 per cent.

The estimated expenditure by the JV partners for development of the field will be about US$104 million.

The block in Cambay basin was awarded under VIth Exploration bidding round on production sharing contract on 19th November, 1996 to a consortium of VALCO (Operator), Tata Petrodyne Ltd (TPL), Hindustan Oil Exploration Company ltd (HOEC) and ONGC. Since then the operatorship of the block changed hands from VALCO to HARDY to Enron to BGEPIL, all multinational E &P companies. Subsequent to withdrawal by BGEPIL in 2003, operatorship of the block was awarded to ONGC with consortium partners HOEC and TPL in December 2004.

Gulf-A development plan is the first to be operated by ONGC, under PSC regime. The development plan envisages unconventional method of developing an offshore area by onland methodology. This will be carried out by construction of road and jetty and drilling pad using on land rigs.