New Delhi, March 17: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is keeping its fingers crossed as its hunt for oil in the deep sea has gathered momentum with the high-tech drilling ship Discoverer Seven Seas moving into the offshore Krishna-Godavari basin near the Andhra coast.

Sources say Bedford Dolphin, the other foreign ship hired by ONGC, has drawn a blank in its first exploratory well off the Gujarat coast and has now been moved to another offshore block in the area.

Senior ONGC officials claimed the data collected from this dry well would “prove helpful for future exploration work”.

Discoverer Seven Seas, owned by global major Bedford Drilling, is the second foreign ship to join the oil hunt after the TransOcean-owned Dolphin.

ONGC’s own ship Sagar Vijay is carrying out exploratory drilling in the deep-sea blocks with depths up to 900 metres. It has struck some gas in the area adjoining the block owned by Reliance and has now started work on the second well.

ONGC is paying around $0.8 million per day for Discoverer Seven Seas and Dolphin, both of which are equipped with state-of-the-art equipment. The two rigs have been hired for three years. These ships will be operating in water depths ranging from 900 to 3,000 metres.

Bedford Dolphin and Discoverer Seven Seas have been hired as they are reported to have been involved in major deep sea oil finds in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea. It remains to be seen whether they strike similar success off the Indian coast.

With the advances in technology, the new oil finds worldwide are increasingly being made in the deep-sea blocks. As much as 50 per cent of ONGC’s oil exploration budget is being allocated for deep-sea exploration.

Since India is not seen as a promising oil destination at this point, no prominent foreign company has come forward to undertake exploration in the country. Repeated efforts to woo them, including several roadshows abroad, have proved unsuccessful. As a result, the Indian hopes have to be pinned mainly on ONGC and the hiring of the best expertise in critical areas.

Foreign consultants such as Landmark Paradigm and Jason, Schlumberger and Triton with proven expertise in oil exploration will form part of the team to assist the deep sea drilling.

The big plunge for deep-sea oil, christened project ‘Sagar Samriddhi’, is expected to discover 4 billion tonnes. At least 25 per cent of this oil would be recoverable and at an average price of $20 per barrel this would be worth $1.5 billion (over Rs 600,000 crore) over the coming years.