CHENNAI: In a significant development, State-owned oil major ONGC has proposed to drill 104 new hydrocarbon development wells in the Cauvery basin.
The pre-feasibility report says drilling of a well will take 90 to 120 days. “Cauvery Asset will improve production rate by exploiting hydrocarbon potential from these blocks,” says the report. With the Centre attempting to reduce import dependence on crude oil to 10 per cent by 2022, ONGC has to drill more development wells.
Interestingly, it has submitted that there are inland water bodies within the block and groundwater is being used for cultivation and drinking purposes.
◆ Since 1984, ONGC has never looked back in its exploratory efforts
◆ Cauvery Basin has five sub-basins: Pondicherry-Ariyallur, Tranquebar, Nagapattinam, Tanjore and Ramnad-Palk Bay sub-basin
◆ Ramnad field was discovered in 1994 which is a major gas field of Cauvery basin put on production in 2002
◆ Oil production started in Cauvery basin from 1986 and gas production started from 1995-96
◆ 33 fields have been discovered in Cauvery sedimentary basin. For further development of the field and exploitation of oil and gas from the fields, drilling plan has been made. Accordingly, every year, 10-12 development wells need to be drilled to inflate the production of the Asset