ONGC makes substantial oil and natural gas discovery in the Arabian Sea

Mumbai, January 5: Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), state-owned company was successful in oil and gas discovery to the west of its prime Mumbai High fields in the Arabian Sea.

This information was given by Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the discovery has indicated potential in-place reserves of about 29.74 million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas, he said. “The 9th object on testing flowed oil at the rate of 3,310 barrels per day and gas at the rate of 17,071 cubic meters per day,” the minister said. “This multi-layered oil and gas accumulation in this well opened up a new area for exploration/development.”

Mumbai High, India’s biggest oil field, currently produces 205,000 barrels of oil per day (just over 10 million tonnes per annum) and the new find would add to that production in less than two years’ time. ONGC is carrying out a further appraisal of the discovery and has intimated upstream regulator the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH).

The new find, which comes almost 50 years after ONGC began production in Mumbai High, will help the company maintain production levels from the basin for a longer time than currently estimated.