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Kolkata Nov. 10

OIL and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) has been able to reduce by 60 per cent the wastage on account of flaring of gas from the offshore fields.

Talking to Business Line here after delivering the 7th Prof Hem Chandra Dasgupta Memorial Lecture, organised by the Institution of Engineers (India), Kolkata, Mr Subir Raha, Chairman of ONGC, said while the technical flaring, which happens when the exploration process was on, was inevitable as otherwise it may lead to an explosion (since it is not known where the gas will land), non-technical flaring essentially took place in the absence of a dedicated buyer or end-user.

He said ONGC engineers have been highly successful in minimising the wastage on account of flaring in fields such as Heera and Guran in the western sector, and steps were on to further reduce the wastage.

Citing the imperatives of fuels conservation, "notwithstanding the lethargy caused by under-pricing of gas", he said import dependence for hugely populated countries such as India and China would keep increasing in the future, causing oil price trends to remain on the higher side. He opined that "coal, hydel and nuclear potentials can make India reach self-sufficiency in energy in all sectors, except transportation, especially in road and air modes.

Earlier delivering the Memorial Lecture on `Underground coal gasification - an option for self-sufficiency in fuel and feedstock for India', Mr Raha said the petro-chemcial industry was the major driver for oil and gas demand as feedstock, as hydel and nuclear potentials cannot close this demand-supply gap.

India, he cautioned, holds only 0.5 per cent of the world's oil and gas reserves, against West Asia holding 65 per cent of the world's oil and 36 per cent of gas.

He said the oil and gas producers, especially in West Asia, are increasingly extracting value themselves, preferring to export only the lean gas.

India's per capita consumption of petrochemicals is about 1.8 kg per year against the global rate of 37 kg, and this huge growth potential brings into focus the question of feedstock security, an issue rarely discussed, he pointed out.

He said this concern holds goods for the fertiliser industry as well. Globally, he clarified, the oil reserve accretion has been only 4 per cent over the decade ending 2002, with negative growth in North America (minus 45 per cent) and Asia-Pacific (minus 13.2 per cent).

According to Mr Raha, oil consumption has increased at 1.1 per cent CAGR in the same period, with the highest growth of 3.1 per cent in the Asia-Pacific, influenced by the trends in China (6.7 per cent) and India (4.6 per cent).

Maintaining that abundant reserves of coal hold potential solutions for India, Mr Raha said there was now an urgent need to look seriously at investments in Coal Bed Methane (CBM) and Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) technologies.

He felt that while CBM, a low-pressure gas, will be useful for clean generation of electrical energy, UCG will allow access to unmineable deep coal as well, at depths of the order of 1 km. The rich gas can be synthesised into liquids suitable for use as feedstock and transportation fuels. "A judicious mix of CBM, from shallower and suitable seams and UCG at deeper seams will facilitate maximum utilisation of the coal reserves."

Pointing out that ONGC was actively engaged in both technologies, Mr Raha said while the first production testing of CBM has been completed, UCG development after a decade was being resumed. ONGC, he said, was now planning to work with Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC), and Coal India Ltd under the auspices of the Ministry of Coal on UCG development.

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