Oil & Natural Gas Corporation plans to spend $5 billion to develop gas fields to boost output by almost 60% in six years, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The New Delhi-based explorer sought permission from the oil and gas regulator on July 16 to invest the funds in nine natural gas discoveries off India’s east coast to produce 35 million cubic metres a day by 2016, one person said, declining to be identified before the directorate general of hydrocarbons approves the plan.
The amount is triple ONGC’s planned spending on its largest oil field and follows the government’s decision in May to double the price at which the explorer sells gas. India is ramping up gas output at the fastest pace in the world, according to BP’s 2010 Statistical Review of World Energy, after companies including Reliance Industries discovered new fields. “ONGC has been discovering new reserves for a while but the concern is being able to convert them to production,” said Rohit Ahuja, a Mumbai-based analyst with Centrum Broking in Mumbai. “The company is looking to address this with the very good discoveries they have in the east coast.”
The producer of almost 25% of the crude oil used by India is starting new fields at home as output declined at aging areas off the west coast. Reserves added in fields operated by ONGC in the year ended March was the equivalent of 82.98 million metric tonne, the highest in the past 20 years, the explorer said April 26.
Source: Economic Times
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