The Hindu Business Line : ONGC made six finds in 2003-04

STATE-RUN oil exploration giant Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) made six new discoveries during 2003-04 in a year that saw the gross turnover of the company and its subsidiaries cross the $10 billion mark.

"During the year, ONGC made six discoveries — East Lakhibari (oil) in Assam, Sonamura (gas) in Tripura, Degam (oil) in Gujarat, Sitarampuram (gas) in Andhra Pradesh, NMT-2 (gas) in Western Offshore and G-4 in Bay of Bengal," a company press release said here.

The onshore finds are being brought into production, and development plans were being prepared for the offshore ones. Offshore discoveries in D-1 and Vasai East fields in Western Offshore and G-1 and GS-15 finds in Eastern Offshore are under development, with deliveries likely to start in 2005-06, it said. Service contracts have been awarded for eight marginal onshore oil fields, with development beginning in 2004-05. "With these awards, ONGC will monetise 1.8 million tonnes of oil in-place worth Rs 870 crore," the release said.

Nineteen marginal oil and gas fields in Western offshore have been offered for service contracts. The fields are likely to be awarded by September 2004 and development work is scheduled to begin by next year.

Redevelopment of ONGC's flagship Mumbai High field in the Arabian Sea has already augmented production by 50,000 barrels per day (2.5 million tonnes per year).

ONGC made its first deep-sea discovery at G-4 structure in Krishna Godavari Basin in January 2004. The discovery is estimated to hold 0.8 trillion cubic feet of gas, the release said.

The company's gross turnover stood at Rs 33,350 crore in 2003-04 as against Rs 35,387 crore in the previous year, after adjusting Rs 2,063 crore paid to oil retailing companies for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Kerosene subsidy as directed by the Government, it said.

The company declared an interim dividend of Rs 14 per share amounting to Rs 1,996 crore for the year.

The year also saw ONGC's wholly owned subsidiary, ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL), raise its turnover 12 times to Rs 3,175 crore. The subsidiary acquired 49 per cent stake in two exploration blocks in Libya, and 60 per cent interest in one exploration block in Syria. ONGC's downstream subsidiary, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), processed 10.05 million tonnes of crude, 104 per cent of the rated capacity of 9.69 million tonnes. It registered a gross turnover of Rs 12,488 crore, up 46 per cent over last year.

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