Agartala, May 18: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will conduct largescale exploration to meet the rising demand for natural gas in the state’s power plants and industrial ventures.
Exploration will commence at Tulamura under Belonia subdivision from the first week of June.
“It is a far-off place without any water supply facilities and we had to flatten a whole hillock to set up our rig for exploration,” said Biplab Guha, ONGC’s executive director and asset manager in Tripura.
Guha said the requirement for natural gas has increased because of upcoming thermal plants at Palatana in South Tripura and Monarchak in West Tripura and expansion of existing plants in Barmura and Rookhia.
Mumbai-based Allied Regence and Chemicals has also placed an order for natural gas to set up a methanol project.
“Taking into consideration the set of demands we have agreed to meet, we will need to supply six million cubic metres of gas and we are preparing for it by drilling new wells,” said Guha.
He said ONGC would dig 120 new wells in different parts of the state over the next few years and at least half of them were likely to yield gas.
“From our past experience of drilling in Tripura we know that every second well drilled in the state is found to be gas bearing. This makes us hopeful,” Guha said, adding that the higher ONGC management has given the green signal for further exploration in the state.
Guha said, according to a survey conducted by a specialist firm, 52 billion cubic metres of natural gas could be found underground in the state.
“We have prepared a special programme called Vision Mission 6 million to augment natural gas production,” Guha said, adding that this programme would act as a guideline for the corporation. Guha said he met state ind- ustries minister Jiten Chowdhury and assured him of an increase in the gas supply.
Regarding the Palatana thermal plant, the foundation stone of which was laid by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on October 29, 2005, he said the tender is being finalised and work will start soon.
Guha added that work on Neepco’s thermal power project at Monarchak would also commence soon.
