New Delhi. Jan. 21: Scientists from the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) in Hyderabad will soon begin magnetic surveys of the seabed in the Gulf of Kutch as part of a Rs 22-crore project to seek out new oil deposits for India.

The “magnetotelluric surveys” to be carried out from scientific cruises in the Gulf of Kutch are intended to find sediments beneath the sea that might hold hydrocarbon reserves, NGRI director Vijay Dimri said.

Under an agreement signed in Hyderabad today, the directorate general of hydrocarbons of the ministry of petroleum will provide NGRI Rs 6 crore for the Gulf of Kutch survey and Rs 16 crore to look for fresh reserves in Kutch, Dimri said.

“We think the Gulf of Kutch is a promising zone for such a survey,” Dimri said.

Earlier studies by the NGRI have shown that the northern part of Saurashtra and the southern part of Kutch have thick mesozoic sediments ? a type of sediment that accounts for 50 per cent of the world’s hydrocarbon reserves. The Gulf of Kutch is expected to have similar sediments.

“The magnetotelluric surveys will look for geophysical features that correlate with hydrocarbon reserves,” he said.

The NGRI has also teamed up with the Oil and Natural Gas Commission and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology to enhance oil recovery from wells where the residual oil is too viscous to be recovered through conventional means.

The average oil recovery rate in India is just about 27 per cent, Dimri said.

Norway is able to recover 60 per cent of available oil in its wells.

High-viscosity residual oil can be recovered by injecting water and steam or through controlled ignition of the reserves.

“The scientific challenge is to pinpoint the exact site where we can inject water or steam or spark a fire-flood to force the oil out,” Dimri said.

The project will use the mathematical concept of fractal analysis to pinpoint the best site near an oil well for steam injection or fire flooding, Dimri said.

Fractals deal with irregular geometry and can help predict the behaviour of hydrocarbons in a reservoir.

An oil well in Gujarat where the current level of recovery is less than 12 per cent has been picked as the trial site to test this advanced technique to enhance recovery, Dimri said. “If it works here, we’ll extend it to other sites.”