KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – Indian national oil and natural gas exploration and production (E&P) major ONGC is planning a rapid ramp up of production by spending $9.40-billion over the next three to four years.

Stung by a 4% fall in Indian crude oil production during 2018/19, largely owing to ageing fields operated by ONGC, the E&P would be putting capital expenditure into 13 developmental projects and three projects entailing enhanced oil recovery processes at its existing assets.

The company is aiming to achieve cumulative crude oil production of 54.6-million tons and 114-billion cubic meters of natural gas through the fresh investments over the next three and four years.

Company sources have said that almost 50% of the cumulative crude and natural gas production was expected to come from ONGC’s KG-DWN 98/2 block, in Bay of Bengal, along the east coast. Of the 34 wells planned in this block the first well has been set a target of drilling to 2 346 m and expected to produce 5 000 b/d of oil equivalent once in production.

According to ONGC, the KG-DWN project would involve ONGC deploying some of the most advanced oilfield technologies in drilling the 34 sub-sea wells laying about 425 km of pipeline and 150 km of umbilical in water depths ranging from 300 m to 1 400 m. As per project plans, there would be an offshore process platform for processing and evacuating 6.5-million metric standard cubic meters per day (MMSCMD) of natural gas, while the balance of 5.75 MMSCMD natural gas would be transported through its existing sub-sea infrastructure.

Indian crude oil production during the 12-month period ended March 31, 2019 was 34.2-million tons, down from 35.7-million tons during the corresponding previous period, according to government data. Of this, ONGC’s production fell to 21-million tons during 2018/19 from 22.5-million tons during previous financial year.

As reported by Mining Weekly Online earlier, the fall in domestic crude oil production increased the country’s import dependency to 83.7% during 2018/19, up from 82.9% during previous financial year. This despite the government having set a target of reducing import dependency to 67% by 2022 and constituting one of the primary strategic reasons for the national E&P major committing major investment to rapidly getting megaprojects operational.