ONGC to execute 12 projects for Rs.13,000 crore by mid-2016

State-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) on Tuesday announced it will implement 12 projects worth Rs.13,000 crore by the end of May 2016, seeking to take advantage of falling crude oil prices.

"Nine projects with an investment of around Rs.22,000 crore have already been completed till now in 2015-16, and another 12 projects worth Rs.13,000 crore are planned for completion by May 2016," chairman D.K.Sarraf said addressing the company's 22nd annual general meeting (AGM) here.

"With a capital outlay of over Rs.14,500 crore, ONGC has also moved into the next phase of its re-development programmes for some of the prolific western offshore fields - Mumbai High North and Mumbai High South and Neelam," he said.

The company's board has since last year approved implementation of five development projects of around Rs.20,000 crore including Integrated Daman Development, Enhanced Recovery from Bassein and Additional Development of Vasai East project, he added.

Sarraf also pointed to the opportunities flowing from lower crude prices.

"While many of the global E&P companies have responded to this situation by cutting down their investments, ONGC takes this as an opportunity to build its assets in this environment of lower costs as well," he said.

"Important projects have been given the go-ahead for development and more proposals to monetize our reserves are under various stages of finally being approved. Having reversed the decline in crude oil production in 2014-15, ONGC is now fully focused on implementing programmes to raise output from ageing and old fields," Sarraf said.

The chairman said that the Improved Oil Recovery and Enhanced Oil Recovery projects undertaken to maximise production have yielded over 34 percent of ONGC's crude production in the last fiscal.

ONGC's overseas arm ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) has submitted a $10 billion integrated proposal to Iran for developing and shipping the gas to India from Iran's Farzad-B gas field.

"In April, we met in Iran and as per discussions, we have worked out a fully integrated proposal and submitted to the Iranian authorities," said OVL managing director Narendra K. Verma.