Agartala, June 14: The ONGC Tripura plans to increase its gas production using new technology to cope with the demand of thermal power plants and an upcoming urea factory in North Tripura.

The ONGC's total daily gas production is 44 lakh cubic metre while the current requirement for various thermal power plants is 35 to 36 lakh cubic metre.

The demand will increase manifold as the corporation is committed to supplying natural gas to the 101MW thermal power plant at Monarchak.

The ONGC's asset manager in Tripura, B.P. Mahawar, said the corporation was applying new and sophisticated methods to drill new wells in search of gas. He told reporters at Barmura, the ONGC's oldest site 46km east of Agartala, yesterday that the company was trying to accelerate the findings of natural gas through the sophisticated method of hydraulic fracturing at Jamling near Barmura. "After Assam, this sophisticated method is being applied in Tripura alone till now."

He said drilling at Jamling had commenced in 2013, was given up because of technical reasons but had recommenced now. "If we dig a little further we are sure to strike gas. Here we hope to find about 25,000 cubic metre of gas," he added.