ONGC gas output jumps 6.5 pct to record high in FY19

Reversing years of decline, state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has reported a record 6.5 per cent jump in natural gas production to 25.9 billion cubic meters in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, as it doubles up efforts to raise domestic output to curb imports. Natural gas production from ONGC-operated nomination fields, NELP blocks and joint venture assets reached 25.819 BCM in 2018-19 as compared to 24.61 BCM output in the previous fiscal, ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Shashi Shanker said.

The company is on course to produce 42 BCM by end of fiscal 2022, when its prized KG basin discoveries will come onstream. "Some of our gas fields are very old like the Bassien field in western offshore. These continue to make a substantial contribution to the overall domestic production of gas because of continuous monitoring of the fields, applications of state-of-the-art technology and best possible reservoir management," Shanker said.

A bulk of the output in the 2018-19 financial year came from fields that were given to ONGC on nomination basis. Gas output from these rose to 24.683 BCM against 23.43 BCM in the previous 2017-18 fiscal.

There has been a marginal increase in the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) fields also from 0.054 BCM to 0.073 BCM. The growth rate was higher than the global average of 3-4 per cent year-on-year. Natural gas is the fastest growing primary energy source in the world. It is the cleanest burning petroleum-based fuel and has wide applications -- from being used to generate electricity to the running of automobiles (CNG) and firing kitchen stoves.

Aiming to reduce dependence on imports for meeting energy needs and cutting greenhouse emissions, India is looking at increasing consumption of natural gas by more than doubling its share in energy basket to 15 per cent by 2030.

Shanker said, gas sales also recorded an impressive increase during the year with sales (provisional) standing at 20.472 BCM against the sales of 19.494 BCM in 2017-18. During 2018-19, the company has, for the first time in its six-decade-old history, witnessed the highest ever gas production of 71 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) in November 2018. ONGC, he said, is taking all measures to sustain the production level and then grow further as per the company's operational blueprint.

The company has stepped up efforts to bring newer fields into production after Prime Minister Narendra Modi set a stiff target of reducing oil import dependence by 10 per cent by 2022. India currently imports over 80 per cent of its oil needs.The growth in output was largely contributed by C-26 Cluster fields, Daman and Vasai East fields in the western offshore as well as sub-sea well S2AB in the eastern offshore, he said adding ONGC has charted out a plan to double the gas production at 42.7 BCM by 2021-22.

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It is investing Rs 57,000 crore - one of the highest investments in the world in gas projects - in the high potential KG-DWN-98/2 project in the Bay of Bengal as well as in developing other discoveries on off the west coast.

First gas from the KG-DWN-98/2 project is targeted for end-2019 and peak output is envisaged at 16.56 mmscmd by 2022. Giving details of projects that contributed to the increase, he said the incremental production came from Daman Offshore in the West as well as S1 ?Vashishta in the eastern offshore. Some of the onshore fields too saw the trend of falling output reversed. The Daman project has been completed at an investment of Rs 6,086 crore for a production profile of 26.93 BCM over a period of time. The project contributed 4.5 mmscmd last fiscal.

Similarly, ONGC has drawn an investment plan of Rs 5,725 crore for Vashishta and S1 for total gas production of 14.61 BCM. Current production from the project stands at 3 mmscmd. One of the major breakthrough On-shore projects is Tripura Gas Project for which an investment plan of Rs 5,000 crore is being drawn up to recover 49.37 BCM gas up to the profile period. Current gas production from the block is 4.5 mmscmd.