Government-owned ONGC strikes more oil & gas in Mumbai offshore basin

The discoveries, which have been named 'Suryamani' and 'Vajramani', have been struck in blocks awarded under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) regime, the ONGC said

New Delhi: Government-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has made new oil and gas discoveries in the Mumbai Offshore hydrocarbon basin that are expected to enhance the production of the upstream oil giant in the near future.

The discoveries, which have been named ‘Suryamani’ and ‘Vajramani’, have been struck in blocks awarded under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) regime, the ONGC said in a statement issued as part of its January-March quarterly financial results.

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Exploratory well MBS202HAA-1 on Block MB-OSHP-2020/2 yielded 2,235 barrels per day of oil and 45,181 million cubic metres a day of gas during testing done in the January-March quarter.

“This is the first discovery in Basal Clastics in OALP Block MB-OSHP-2020/2. The success in well MBS202HAA-1 was notified as New Prospect Discovery and rechristened as ‘Suryamani’,” the ONGC said in the statement.

Subsequently, during the current quarter, a second zone was tested on the same well, from which flowed 413 barrels per day of oil and 15,132 cubic metres a day of gas.

“This hydrocarbon success in Mukta Formation was encountered for the first time in OALP Block MB-OSHP-2020/2 and was notified as a New Pool Discovery of the Suryamani prospect. Exploratory well MBS181HNA-1 in OALP-III Block MB-OSHP-2018/1 Mumbai flowed 2,122 barrels of oil per day and 83,120 cubic metres of gas a day during testing.”

“This discovery is an independent fault-bounded nosal feature and lies in the western part of the block MB-OSHP-2018/1. The success in well MBS181HNA-1 was notified as New Prospect Discovery named as ‘Vajramani’,” the ONGC statement said.

Apart from Mumbai offshore, ONGC made another hydrocarbon discovery in the KG basin land block during the January-March quarter.

Exploratory well Yandapalli-1, drilled down to a depth of 3,958 metres in Malleswaram PML in the onland sector of KG Basin, found oil and gas reserves, the ONGC statement added. “This hydrocarbon success of well Yandapalli-1 was notified as a New Prospect discovery,” it added.

The discoveries have provided hope at a time when India’s imports of oil and gas have been steadily increasing due to ONGC’s ageing oil and gas fields. Currently, around 85 per cent of the country’s oil requirement is met through imports.