ONGC to spend Rs 1,000 cr on exploration in Guj, Rajasthan

The western onshore basin of ONGC plans to spend Rs 1,000 crore on exploration in Gujarat and Rajasthan in two years, Basin Manager PB Pandey said today.

Talking to newsmen here on the occasion of 56th foundation day, Pandey said, "The basin has a target to drill 49 exploratory wells this financial year and also to deploy two 3D-3C, 5 3D and one 2D seismic crew for acquiring high resolution seismic data."

The target for drilling of wells is higher this year due to success in drilling of 43 exploratory wells last year, 21 of which were hydrocarbon bearing.

The success percentage of wells drilled to hydrocarbon bearing was 55.6% which means that for every 1.8 wells drilled, one well was proved successful, said Pandey adding this ratio was considered quite creditable in the hydrocarbon industry.

The significant new finds of the basin in 2010-11, include Vadtal 1, Vadtal 3 and Aliabet 2, of which Aliabet promises to be good find for ONGC, Pandey said.

After failure of GSPCL in finding oil and gas from shallow water in Aliabet, ONGC took it over and started drilling wells there.

"We have started getting about 1.5 lakh cubic meter gas per day from two drilled wells in Aliabet, which promises to be a good find for us," Pandey said.

"Now we will take up a cluster of four wells in this region to save expenditure being incurred on exploration and will start commercial production from it after getting oil from it first, said Pandey.

Because of infrastructure problems and non-availability of shallow rig, the work of drilling of wells in Aliabet is getting delayed, he said.

After Ankleshwar and Gandhar oil and gas field, both Aliabet and Vadtal may turn out to be prospective oil and gas fields, Pandey hoped.