ONGC to invest ₹31,000 crore in exploration of Indian sedimentary basin

India's top oil and gas producer ONGC said on Thursday that it will invest 31,000 crore over the next three years in exploration of the Indian sedimentary basin for fuel reserves, which could help the nation's production in its attempt to be self-reliant in the energy sector.

ONGC said its board held a meeting on Thursday to firm up its 'Future Exploration Strategy'.

During FY 2022 -- 25 the company has drawn up a comprehensive roadmap to further enhance its exploration campaign, allocating a capital expenditure of around 31,000 crore in the next three fiscal years. It said that this is 150 per cent of its exploration expenditure of Rs 20,670 crore in the last three fiscals in FY 2019 -- 22.

ONGC plans to leverage international collaborations with reputed global majors for this, for which talks are in an advanced stage.

It did not elaborate.

India is dependent on imports to meet its oil needs and half of its natural gas needs is shipped from abroad, and India is 85 per cent dependent on imports to meet its oil needs. Finding and producing more oil and gas domestically will reduce this reliance, helping insulate the domestic market from volatility in international energy prices.

The statement said that this exploration intensification includes activities funded by ONGC's internal program as well as funded and facilitated by the government.

ONGC is trying to find out about 1,700 million barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas MMTOE of yet-to-find YTF reserves during FY 2022 -- 25 under the internal program.

There are activities that include a state-of-the-art 2 D and 3 D seismic survey, followed by drilling of around 115 120 wells with an estimated outlay of Rs 10,000 crore every year for the next three years.

The government's facilitation has resulted in the release of approximately 96,000 square kilometers of area, which was previously demarcated as a 'No Go' zone. This will help ONGC reach its goal of 5,00, 000 sq km of active exploration by the year 2025.

Under a government-funded program for appraisal of unapprised offshore areas until the Exclusive Economic Zone EEZ 70,000 line kilometers LKM of state-of-the-art 2 D broadband seismic data acquisition, processing and interpretation API will be done in three sectors - west coast, east coast and Andaman offshore.

By June 2022, ONGC will complete the technical bid opening TBO for seismic data acquisition.

In Andaman Basin, ONGC currently holds two blocks for exploration under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy OALP 'Government of India, seismic data has been acquired in some sectors within 'No-Go' areas and few prospects are already identified, it said.

ONGC plans to drill six wells over the next three years, two under the ONGC commitment program and four through government funding. Reputed global companies consultants are invited to participate in the assessment of the basin for future exploration and exploitation plan.

The statement said that the internal program of theONGC has three components - re-exploration of mature basins, consolidation of emerging basins and probing of emerging and new basins.