'ONGC doubles gas production in Tripura in 5 years'

State-owned ONGC has more than doubled its gas production in five years in Tripura brightening prospects of setting up of more gas based projects, officials said here on Wednesday.

"ONGC has more than doubled its production from 6,450 lakh cubic metres of gas in 2012-13 to 13,820 lakh cubic metres in 2016-17," a spokesman of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) said.

The company is presently supplying gas at a rate of 45 lakh cubic metres per day to various power projects, to run vehicles on compressed natural gas (CNG) and supply piped natural gas (PNG) to households for cooking purposes and crematorium.

The spokesman said that as part of enhancing drilling activities, the rig fleet has been increased from three rigs in 2015-16 to seven rigs in 2016-17, with one more rig under tendering stage.

"With the addition of these rigs, the number of wells drilled in the state has gone up from 10-12 wells in 2015-16 to 15 wells in 2016-17. It plans to drill 22 wells per year in the next three years."

ONGC Tripura Asset is also augmenting its gas processing capacity from 49.5 lakh cubic metres per day in 2015-16 to 57.5 lakh cubic metres per day in 2016-17 by setting up of a GCS (Gas Collection Station) at Sonamura in western Tripura.

"To further boost the gas processing capacities two more big GCS would be set up in Gojalia (in southern Tripura) and Agartala Dome in western Tripura by April 2019," the official said.

The spokesman said the exploration activities in the entire northeastern India are being monitored by Assam and Assam-Arakkan Basin operating from Jorhat in eastern Assam.

"Four forward base offices located at Nazira, Jorhat and Cachar - Silchar (all in Assam) and Agartala also monitored the exploration activities in the region. The Assam and Assam-Arakkan basin comprises of two geological structures of Assam Shelf," she added.

The official said that as part of its continuous efforts to enhance gas production in the state and to supply all the consumers on sustainable basis, ONGC Tripura Asset has taken lot of initiatives for augmenting its resources and expanding its operational activities across Tripura.

ONGC, which has been operational in Tripura since 1972, has so far drilled about 212 wells in Tripura more than half of which are gas-bearing.

The company has also earlier commissioned its first commercial power project in India, located in southern Tripura and run by ONGC Tripura Power Company (OTPC), a new company formed by ONGC, Tripura government and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (IL&FS).

The 726 MW capacity gas-based combined cycle power project (using both water and natural gas), located at Palatana, 60 km from Tripura capital here, has been supplying electricity to the seven northeastern states.

ONGC has also planned to set up a Rs 5,000 crore fertiliser plant in northern Tripura in association with the state government and Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd, a Rajasthan based private company.

"Electricity is being supplied to seven of the eight northeastern states from the Palatana power project. Also 100 MW of power is being supplied to Bangladesh since March 23 2016," another ONGC official said.

"The generation capacity of the OTPC power project is likely to be increased to 1,090 MW from the existing 726 MW in near future. Works are going in this direction," a top OTPC engineer told IANS on condition of anonymity.

--IANS

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