ONGC makes four oil discoveries in Ashokenagar, awaits mining lease from West Bengal govt

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has made four more discoveries since it first made an oil field near Asokenagar in West Bengal six years back but is still awaiting the state government's nod for a petroleum mining lease to develop them, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday.

ONGC notified the first Asokenagar discovery in Block WB-ONN-2005/4 on September 24, 2018, Puri said in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

The discovery, he said was the outcome of continuous exploration efforts of ONGC in the Bengal sedimentary basin over five decades.

As per initial laboratory studies, crude oil, which is refined into fuels like petrol and diesel, discovered in the Ashokenagar discovery is a light variety with American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity of 40-41 degrees and is almost similar to Bombay High and Brent Crude.

"ONGC, accordingly, applied on September 10, 2020, to the Government of West Bengal for a grant of Petroleum Mining Lease (PML) for an area of 5.88 square kilometres (sq km) in North 24 Parganas District for the early monetisation of Asokenagar-1 discovery under Early Development Plan (EDP)," he said.

A month later, the central government also recommended the state government for a grant of PML.

"The grant of this PML is still awaited from the state government of West Bengal," he said.

Under the Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules, 1959, the state governments are empowered to grant PML with the prior recommendation of the central government.

"As the PML was awaited from the state government, EDP could not be implemented thereby affecting production of oil and gas," Puri said.

However, ONGC continued appraisal/exploratory drilling activities and established the presence of hydrocarbon in other wells namely Asokenagar-2, Kankpul-1, Bhurkunda-1 and Ranaghat-2, thus, enhancing the hydrocarbon prospectivity around Asokenagar-1 discovery in New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) Block WB-ONN-2005/4.

"Based on the latest data availability and analysis, an area of 99.06 sq km with more than four discoveries has been carved out into an Integrated Field Development Plan (FDP) which also includes an EDP area of 5.88 sq km for developing oil and gas discovery of Asokenagar-1. This integrated FDP has been approved by the Government of India (GoI) on July 10, 2024," he said.

The Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas further said the recommendation letter for the issuance of PML by the Government of West Bengal was sent on October 29, 2024.

"PML application for the approved area of FDP (99.06 sq km) was submitted by ONGC on November 5, 2024, to the Government of West Bengal," he said.

The minister said the power to grant PML for Asokenagar oil field lies with the Government of West Bengal.

The Government of India and ONGC (operator) are consistently pursuing issuance of PML from the Government of West Bengal. 

The recommendation letter for the grant of PML conveyed to the state government of West Bengal on October 21 2020 has been followed up with the request letter dated February 1, 2023 and D.O. Letter dated January 12, 2024, from Director General, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons to the Principal Secretary, Government of West Bengal, Department of Industry, Commerce & Enterprises. The matter has been flagged to the Government of West Bengal (GoWB) in the Eastern Zonal Council meeting held on July 4, 2024, at Ranchi for expediting consideration of GoWB," he added.