New Delhi, Dec. 13: ONGC has discovered three new oil and gas blocks in the Krishna Godavari, Cauvery basins and the Mumbai offshore area and will be paying a 100 per cent interim dividend to its shareholders.
Of the three discoveries, one is in the deepwater KG basin, the second in the Mumbai offshore basin, and the third in the Cauvery basin.
In the KG basin, off the east coast, ONGC has made a significant gas discovery in its nomination deep water block KG-OS-DW-III.
The discovery well GD-11-1, located about 43 km to the south of the nearest coastal town of Odalarevu in Andhra Pradesh, was drilled down to a depth of 2,810 metres in water depth of 812 metres to explore the hydrocarbon potential of Pliocene sands.
The Pliocene sequence has indicated the presence of about 36 metres of gas play, which, on conventional testing, has flowed gas at the rate of around 6.5 lakh cubic metres a day.
ONGC has already made five hydrocarbon bearing discoveries from the northward contiguous NELP-VI shallow water block of KG-OSN-2004/1 from a similar play and this discovery has opened up a large opportunity for further assessment, it said.
In the Mumbai offshore area, ONGC made a new pool discovery in the well WO-5-11 (WO-5-G), situated around 160 km west of the nearest coastline in Maharashtra.
In the Cauvery basin, ONGC has made a significant gas discovery in the well MD-5 in the NELP-IV block CY-ONN-2002/2.
This is the second hydrocarbon discovery in the block. The first discovery in this block was in October 2012, when oil was discovered in the Madanam-3 well.
Interim dividend
The ONGC board in its meeting yesterday approved an interim dividend of 100 per cent, paying Rs 5 per equity share of Rs 5 each, the company said in a statement here today.
'The total payout on this account will be Rs 4,277.75 crore, of which the government of India will receive Rs 2,948.08 crore on its shareholding,' it said.
The firm will also pay a dividend distribution tax of Rs 855.5 crore. The payment of the interim dividend to shareholders will start from December 18.
OIL in Myanmar
Oil India Ltd (OIL), the second largest state-run explorer, has signed contracts for two offshore oil and gas blocks it had bagged in Myanmar.
OIL, along with its consortium partners, signed a production sharing contract (PSC) with Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) for two offshore blocks M4 and YEB at Nay Pyi Taw, the company said in a statement here today.
The OIL-led consortium won these blocks under the Myanmar offshore bidding round 2013, which was launched on April 11 last year.
A total of 30 blocks (11 shallow water and 19 deep sea) were put on offer in this bidding round.
OIL and its partners had bid for three offshore blocks M-4, M-8 and YEB and won two of them.
OIL is the operator with 60 per cent interest in both the blocks. Other consortium partners are Mercator Petroleum Ltd (25 per cent), Oilmax Energy Pvt Ltd (10 per cent), and Oil Star Management Services Co Ltd (a local company of Myanmar with a 5 per cent stake).
Block M-4, with an area of 4008 square miles in water depth of less than 600 feet, is located in Moattama Basin, while the other block YEB, with an area of 8223 sq miles in water depth of less than 600 feet, is located in Thanintharyi Basin.
OIL general manager (business development) P.K. Sharma and MOGE managing director U. Myo Myint Oo signed the contract at a ceremony in Nay Pyi Taw on December 4, the statement said.
