BHUBANESWAR: In a significant step towards unlocking India’s offshore hydrocarbon resources, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has commenced drilling of a key deepwater exploratory well in the Mahanadi offshore basin.
Union Petroleum and Natural Gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday virtually spudded ONGC’s exploratory well, MN-DW18-1-H-D, from New Delhi, launching what the government described as a major milestone under its ‘Samudra Manthan’ campaign for deep and ultra-deepwater exploration.
The well is being drilled in the Mahanadi offshore basin off the Odisha coast, about 23 nautical miles from ONGC’s Konark discovery. It will test the basin’s hydrocarbon potential following recent exploration successes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech last year had announced greater efforts to harness India’s untapped offshore oil and gas resources. Since then, the government has opened nearly one million sq km of previously restricted offshore acreage for exploration through upcoming open acreage licensing policy (OALP) bidding rounds.
The eastern and western offshore basins of the country, extending to water depths up to 3,000 metre, are estimated to hold more than 5,600 million metric tonne of oil equivalent (MMTOE) of hydrocarbon resources. Recent discoveries in the Cauvery, Mahanadi and Andaman basins have reinforced the potential of these frontier regions, said Puri.
ONGC has also strengthened its deepwater exploration capabilities with the launch of its dedicated Deepwater Exploration Mission Centre (DeepX) in Mumbai earlier this year. The centre integrates geoscientific expertise, advanced data interpretation, specialised training and international collaborations under the company’s “One Company, One Data” strategy.
The latest drilling campaign builds on ONGC’s recent Utkal and Konark discoveries, which have enhanced the hydrocarbon prospectivity of the Mahanadi offshore basin.
The company said the deepwater campaign represents one of India’s most technically challenging exploration efforts. Successful discoveries could help increase domestic oil and gas production, improve energy security and support the country’s long-term objective of reducing import dependence while advancing energy self-reliance.
In 2006, ONGC made its first major breakthrough in the deepwater Mahanadi block (MN-DWN-98/3) off the Odisha coast. Subsequent deepwater drilling by ONGC estimated multi-trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas reserves, alongside Utkal and Konark offshore discoveries.
