ONGC decides to open up the Bengal Basin for targeted exploration

Discovers new well with 'substantial' volume of gas

India’s largest energy producer ONGC has decided to open up the Bengal Basin for targeted exploration, spurred by the discovery of a gas well two months back.

Speaking on the sidelines of the India Energy Week, ONGC Director (exploration) Sushma Rawat said the well was now classified as Kankpur 1, and the reserves had initially been found to be ‘substantial’.

“We are still in the delineation phase. We are trying to see what will be the extent of the reservoirs, and what will be the total volume eventually,” she said.

ONGC had back in 2020 begun crude oil production from the Asokenagar-1 well, Bengal Basin in 24 Paragana district. This has made the Bengal Basin India’s eighth producing basin, joining the ranks of Krishna-Godavari (KG), Mumbai Offshore, Assam Shelf, Rajasthan, Cauvery, Assam-Arakan Fold Belt, and Cambay.

The basin occupies an area of 89,000 sq. km in total about which 57,000 square km is on land while 32,000 square km offshore. The potential hydrocarbon resources in the basin are placed at 190 MMt of oil +gas equivalents.

Rawat, however, stressed that it may take a total of three-four years to assess the new wells, drill 5-6 additional wells, and create the techno economic analysis.

The company has taken new acreages in the latest Open Acreage Licensing Programme rounds of bidding.

For exploration, the company has decided to go alone in the onland area where other operators like Oil India and Vedanta are also operating. “In the offshore deep and ultra-deep waters, we are looking for oil and gas majors of international repute who can help us in exploration in such areas,” Rawat said.

Multiple projects worth $3.5 billion are set to come online in the next 3-4 years in the western offshore area, in the Arabian sea, another company official said.

Calling foreign players

At the IEW, the company has held discussions with American oil and gas major ExxonMobil, Norwegian energy multinational Equinor, American oil services conglomerate Baker Hughes, and French research organisation Institut Français du Pétrole on various issues like technology and deepwaters. 

“The world is now getting balanced, as Deep-Sea investments are becoming economical. A combination of factors is there. For India and China, there is one reality. However, other geographies have different realities,” ONGC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Arun Kumar Singh said at a separate event at the summit.

Under its Energy Strategy 2040, Singh said more investments were now needed are more renewables have now come in. 

“So, there is an issue of structural inefficiencies which have crept in. The transition to renewables is a reality, however, oil and gas will remain in focus in the journey. It will happen eventually,” he said.