Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas (Shri Ram Naik)
(a) to (e) : A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF THE LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 47 BY SHRI N. JANARDHANA REDDY TO BE ANSWERED ON 20TH FEBRUARY 2003 REGARDING TAPPING THE RESERVES OF GAS AND OIL PROPOSED BY ONGC
(a): During the X Five Year Plan, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC) plan to acquire a total of 30,500 Line Kilometre (LK) of 2-Dimensional (2D) and 30,900 Sq. Km. of 3-Dimensional (3D) seismic data and drill about 150 exploratory wells in the offshore shallow and deep water areas of both East and West coasts of India.
(b) & (c): During the first year of the X Plan, 2002-03, as on 1.1.2003, ONGC has acquired a total of 16,252 LK of 2D and 4,308 Sq. Kms. of 3D seismic data in the offshore areas of East and West coasts. In addition, during the same period, they have drilled 15 exploratory wells in the Mumbai offshore and KG offshore basins, of which 5 showed hydrocarbons.
(d): Exploration being probabilistic in nature, no definite outcome therefrom can be predicted. Hence, no estimate of investment to be made to tap the resources can also be done.
(e): The long term strategy of ONGC, formulated in light of the `India Hydrocarbon Vision-2025`, envisages the following;
(i) Intensive exploration in the producing basins to upgrade YTF (Yet To Find) hydrocarbon resources to inplace volume.
(ii) Extensive exploration of hitherto non-producing - poorly explored and yet to be explored basins.
(iii) Major thrust on deep offshore and frontier areas.
The above strategy is expected to enhance ONGC`s inplace hydrocarbons from present 6 Billion Tonne (BT) to 12 BT in the next 20 years. In addition, efforts are being made by ONGC through Increased Oil Recovery/Enhanced Oil Recovery methods in its producing fields to improve the overall recovery factor from the present level of 28% to 40% over a period of next 20 years.
