Kerala - Kochi

ONGC to resume exploration along Kerala coast soon

KOCHI: Oil and Natural gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) will resume oil exploration along the Kerala-Konkan coast.

Chairman and Managing Director R.S. Sharma told a press conference here that a deepwater rig deployed on the eastern coast would be utilised for the Kerala-Konkan exploration project.

“Deepwater exploration is highly capital intensive. Desired results were not received during the previous attempt. But we have not lost hope. We plan to explore aggressively along the Kerala coast,” he said. Scientists were of the opinion that the Kerala-Konkan belt had good hydrocarbon resources.

The ONGC had to follow the tender procedure for sourcing of rigs which involved certain limitations. It was a setback for the deepwater operations as private players were going ahead with explorations without such limitations, Mr. Sharma noted. An ultra deepwater rig would be hired to give impetus to the explorations. It would be ready by December 2010, he said.

The ONGC had made a few discoveries in the KG basin and a cluster development approach would be adopted there. A few operations had already started.

Integrated business growth strategy was being implemented whereby the company would like to participate in projects rather than supplying raw materials.

The company is planning to put up an LNG terminal in Mangalore where work is going on for the SEZ project. Talks are under way for sourcing LNG from three countries, he said, without disclosing the names of the countries.

Answering questions, Mr. Sharma said the Kochi LNG project, in which ONGC had a stake, was in progress. He welcomed the windfall profit tax on oil companies proposed by the Union government.

Subsidies on petroleum products should be eliminated in a phased manner, he said, answering another question. Going for nuclear energy was an economic necessity. The ONGC might participate in the projects related to development of nuclear energy, he said.

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