ONGC to invest Rs 372 cr on two marginal offshore fields

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) today said it will invest over Rs 372 crore to develop two marginal oil and gas fields off the West Coast.

The company board today approved "an investment of Rs 372.11 crore for development of the BHE and BH-35 area East of the Mumbai High South field," ONGC Director (Offshore) Sudhir Vasudeva said here.

BHE was first discovered in 1976 and was again taken up for delineation in 1983 but was not deemed economically viable at the then prevailing prices of oil and gas.

The fields will cumulatively produce 0.422 million tonnes of crude oil and 0.529 billion cubic metres of natural gas over a period of eight years, with peak production rates of 2,500 barrels per day of oil and 250,000 cubic metres of gas.

"After studying various options, ONGC decided on suitably locating a well platform with minimum facilities between BHE and BH-35 fields and drilling directional wells to produce oil and gas from the two fields," he said.

He said the company had discovered crude oil in an onland block in Gujarat.

"The exploratory well Vadatal-1 in Block CB-ONN-2004/2, Western Onshore basin, drilled to a depth of 1,784 metres, found oil," he said. "On conventional testing, it flowed oil at the rate of 37 cubic metres per day (278 barrels per day)."

ONGC had won the block, which lies in the Tarapur area of the Western onshore basin, in the sixth round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy.

The discovery has opened up a large area for exploration and is under further assessment of its extent and potential, ONGC said.