Bhubaneswar, May 10: Union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan today said that Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) would soon launch an exploration to find out oil and natural gas on and off Odisha coast.
Picture by Ashwinee Pati
Inaugurating the first-ever office of the corporation here, Pradhan said: "Earlier the ONGC had discovered oil and natural gas. But it has not yet been commercially viable. Now with the technology, a renewed effort will be made to make it commercially viable. A 2-D and 3-D mapping will be done."
Whatever gas has already been found is estimated at Rs 10,000 crore. So far, the ONGC has drilled 26 wells in the deep-water and 3 wells in the shallow water in the Mahanadi offshore areas.
"The office in Bhubaneswar has been set up to further boost the exploratory activities in the Mahanadi offshore areas," he said, adding that traces of gas and oil had already been found near Paradip.
Stating that India imports nearly 77 per cent of its requirement of gas and oil, the Union minister said: "Stress would be given on exploration activities."
The Union minister further said: "The Central government aims to invest around Rs 1 lakh crore in the hydro-carbon sector in the next five years. Under the plan, the liquid and natural gas hub of eastern India will come up soon in Odisha."
Pradhan also said works on the petroleum refinery at Paradip was going on smoothly.
"It will be dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi either in September or October. He will be coming for this purpose to the state at that time. After renovation work at Talcher Fertilser plant completes, stress would be given to produce oil from the coal."
ONGC's chairman-cum-managing director D.K. Saraf said: "With the opening of the Odisha office here, there will be more focus on the exploration activities."
