ONGC is in conversation with global energy companies, including Shell and Petronas, to collaborate on offshore gas projects. The company is also preparing to begin drilling operations in new fields, such as the DWN-98/2 block in the Bay of Bengal’s deep waters, and setting up floating LNG units.
For oil drilling, ONGC plans to start operations by the end of this fiscal year in the Category-II basins of Mahanadi, Bengal, Andaman, Kutch, and Saurashtra. These fields were acquired under the open acreage licensing policy (OALP), which allows companies to select areas they wish to explore.
The KG 98/2 basin is expected to hit peak production of 45,000 barrels per day of crude oil and 10 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) of gas by the end of the financial year. ONGC has already connected six of the twenty wells, with production expected to rise significantly once all the wells are operational.
Moreover, ONGC has partnered with Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) to establish a small-scale LNG plant near the Hatta gasfield in Madhya Pradesh’s Vindhyan basin. The company currently has about 80 discoveries that can be monetised and aims to finalise three to four development plans for stranded gas fields by year-end. In Q2 of FY25, ONGC produced 4.576 million tonnes of oil, a slight increase from 4.545 million tonnes in Q2 of FY24.
