In a big push for India’s energy security, the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has discovered two significant natural gas reserves in the Mahanadi basin block in the Bay of Bengal. With this, the company’s efforts to venture into high-risk deep-water exploration have started yielding results.
The Maharatna company made the discoveries in the block MN-DWHP-2018/1, which it had won in 2019 in the third round of auction under the open acreage licensing policy, two sources with direct knowledge of the development told news agency PTI.
The development has been made in an area that was earlier classified as a ‘no-go’ area because of national security interests. The first discovery, named Utkal, is in 714 metres of water depth and flowed more than 3 lakh cubic metres per day of gas during initial testing, they said, adding the other find is at a water depth of 1,110 metres.
The company has notified the discoveries upstream regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) and is now doing pool size and commercial viability assessments, they said.
The recent discovery is likely to give an impetus to India’s energy security as the country imports nearly half of its gas needs. India is aiming to raise the share of natural gas in its energy basket to 15 percent by 2030 from the current 6.3 percent and more domestic production will aid that.
Natural gas, a major contributor to India’s net zero emission target
For a long, natural gas has been seen as a major tool for India to transition from carbon dioxide-emitting fuels to achieve a net zero carbon emission by 2070. Natural gas has a lower carbon footprint compared to polluting fossil fuels.
Natural gas is extracted from below ground or sea surface. It is mainly used to generate electricity, make fertilisers, or turn into CNG to use as fuel in automobiles and piped to household kitchens for cooking purposes. Greater use of natural gas will replace coal in power generation and liquid fuels in industries.
The recent development was possible only after the government freed almost one lakh square kilometres of the area from restrictions for exploring and producing oil and gas.
Earlier, the area was classified as a ‘no-gas’ area because it came in the path of missile testing or on a satellite launch route. However, in 2022 the restrictions on more than 98 percent of the ‘no-go’ areas were removed 2022, allowing for energy companies to send vessels and drillships to find oil and gas.