State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has made promising offshore oil and gas discoveries in the Mumbai Offshore basin that could help augment production in the near future.
The discoveries have been made in blocks awarded under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) regime, the state-owned firm said in its fourth-quarter earnings statement.
The discoveries, which have been named Suryamani and Vajramani, were made in OALP-VI block MB-OSHP-2020/2 and OALP-III block MB-OSHP- 2018/1, both in the offshore Mumbai basin.
Exploratory well MBS202HAA-1 on Block MB-OSHP-2020/2 flowed 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'," ONGC said.
Subsequently, during the current quarter, a second zone was tested on the same well, 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 New Pool Discovery of 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'," ONGC said.
Mumbai offshore is home to India's biggest oil and gas fields. Mumbai High, located 160 km off the west coast of India in the Arabian Sea, is the nation's largest and most prolific offshore oil and gas field.
The field produces about 1,34,000 barrels per day (bpd), accounting for 35 per cent of India's domestic oil production. The field also produces around 10 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of gas, representing about 18 per cent of the country's gas output.
Mumbai Offshore is also home to the giant Bassein and Satellite gas fields and other significant fields like Heera and Neelam, and Panna-Mukta.
India imports more than 85 per cent of its oil needs and about half of its natural gas requirement. The new discoveries will help augment domestic production, although ONGC gave no timelines for developing the new finds or the production potential.
Besides Mumbai offshore, ONGC also made a discovery in the KG basin on land block during the January-March quarter.
Exploratory well Yandapalli-1 drilled down to the depth of 3,958 metres in Malleswaram PML in the onland sector of KG Basin found oil and gas reserves, ONGC said.
"This hydrocarbon success of well Yandapalli-1 was notified as New Prospect discovery," it added.
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