ONGC: Four discoveries in a month

New Delhi: ONGC has notified four oil and gas discoveries in a month (January 21-February 24). The company, after its board meeting on Monday, said that it has notified four discoveries of crude oil and natural gas to the Directorate-General of Hydrocarbons.

The board has also cleared three major investments for growth-oriented projects, a company statement said. These are reconfiguration of the Dahej Petrochemicals Project, an additional processing facility at Hazira, and ONGC to take 30 per cent additional stake in Gulf-A.

According to the company, “three of the discoveries are onland and the fourth in offshore.” The onland discoveries have been made in well Kosamba-41 and well Chaklasi-8, both in Western onshore and in well Mekrang-7 in Assam. The offshore discovery has been made in well B-12-11 in PEL Block BOFF 1, 2, 3 on the Arabian Sea.

ONGC will take up additional participating interest (PI) of 30 per cent in the development phase of Gulf-A in the joint venture block of CB-OS-1, at the northern-most end of Gulf of Cambay, according to the company.

The ONGC’s share (55.26 per cent) of capital expenditure would be $57.209 million. The other partners in the joint venture are Tata Petrodyne and HOEC.

The board cleared the revised configuration of the Dahej Petrochemicals Project. The project is being implemented by ONGC Petro-additions Ltd (OPAL), where ONGC has management control with 26 per cent equity holding. The project was initially configured with a SBR and a dedicated HDPE unit that have now been removed in view of current market demand-supply dynamics.

The capex has come down from Rs 13,540 crore to Rs 12,440 crore, with ONGC’s equity contribution at Rs 970 crore.

The internal rate of return of the project works out to 15.4 per cent. The reconfigured project is expected to be completed by February 2012.

Additional facility

ONGC has decided to augment the gas-processing capacity of its Hazira complex. The additional units would comprise a gas-sweetening unit with 6.3 million standard cubic metres per day (mscmd) capacity, a gas-dehydration facility of 6.3 mscmd, dew point depression units of 5.6 mscmd and utilities and off -site facilities, cooling tower, sub-station and caustic soda ash unit. The capacity augmentation will require an investment of Rs 370 crore.