ONGC chairman Subir Raha in Calcutta on Tuesday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, Feb. 15: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is looking at naphtha and gas cracker complexes at Dahej in Gujarat and Mangalore in Karnataka, chairman and managing director Subir Raha said.

?We are going ahead with both the projects,? he added.

The company has set aside Rs 9,000 crore for these projects. ONGC is looking at 1.3-1.5-million-tonne capacities at either location. While the Dahej facility will have dual feed ? both naphtha and gas ? the Mangalore complex will primarily use naphtha from its own refinery, MRPL.

At present, ONGC is exporting naphtha extracted from the gas of Vasai and Panna-Mukta-Tapti (PMT) fields. The company also plans to set up an extraction plant using the liquefied natural gas imported by Petronet LNG.

The Dahej facility will use naphtha from all these sources.

At Mangalore, the company will use naphtha from MRPL and also source it from the Mumbai High field. The contract for Dahej would be awarded by June-July.

Power project

ONGC will be formally inducted as a partner in the proposed 700-MW gas-based Tripura power project later this month. The board of Tripura Power Development Corporation will meet on February 17 for the purpose. While ONGC will have a 26 per cent stake, the Tripura government will own 24 per cent and IL&FS 50 per cent.

Raha said some private sector power producers have also evinced interest in buying into the company. For the transmission and distribution of the power, IL&FS will float another special purpose vehicle (SPV). Power Grid Corporation has shown keen interest in this area.

Computer centre

ONGC has applied for five acres of land in Rajarhat for developing a state-of-the-art computer centre. Raha said the company would relocate its present centre at Majherhat. The centre has about 90 people. The company has five such centres in Dehradun, Mumbai, Baroda, Chennai, Jorhat and Calcutta. Raha said the centre would provide access to local students to sophisticated systems and technology.