Funds flow

New Delhi, March 21: ONGC Ltd will spend over Rs 4,000 crore to modernise infrastructure in key oil and gas fields off the Mumbai coast.

The state-owned firm will invest Rs 2,913.10 crore by 2016 to revamp 48 ageing platforms at Mumbai High and Neelam & Heera oil and gas fields.

These fields are expected to be in production till at least 2030 after redevelopment. With the existing facilities, it will not last that long.

“Hence, revamping these facilities in a phased manner is essential to maintain production from Mumbai High and Heera fields,” ONGC said.

The company board, in its meeting yesterday, also approved a Rs 1,138.50-crore revamp of the platforms at the giant Bassein and satellite gas fields in the western offshore.

The two complexes, which process acidic and corrosive gas before the fuel is dispatched to the Hazira gas processing plant of ONGC, were commissioned in 1987 and 1989, respectively.

“Both the complexes have covered the normal design life of 25 years,” ONGC said.

While the revamp job of one complex is planned to be completed in 2013-14, the other is scheduled for completion in 2014-15.

ONGC, which contributes just under two-thirds of crude output of the country, has set an ambitious target of doubling production and trebling revenue by 2030.

It has drawn up a Perspective Plan 2030 under which ONGC plans to invest Rs 11 lakh crore in the next 18 years.

In 2011-12, the company had produced 23.71 million tonnes of oil and 23.32 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas. Its overseas arm, ONGC Videsh, produced 6.21 million tonnes of oil and 2.54 bcm of gas in the same year.

While ONGC would look to unlock 450 million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas from yet to be found domestic resources, OVL has been tasked to source 60 million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas per year by 2030.

Discovery

ONGC has struck oil and gas in three blocks, including one in Tripura. Oil of high quality was found in a KG basin block in Andhra Pradesh. The well is 8 km north-west of Bantumillli town of West Godavari district. In shallow waters of KG basin, it found gas and condensate in one well.

The Tripura well, where gas was struck, is 12 km south-west of Agartala.