The Hindu Business Line : ONGC seeks to maximise marginal oilfields

`Marginal oilfields are no longer marginal' — this is the new mantra for energy major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC). It plans to develop 153 onshore and offshore marginal fields in the near future, a company source said.

Development of marginal fields is one of ONGC's strategic business pursuits to increase production by unlocking small pools of hydrocarbon reserves. It has already monetised 38 fields and 94 fields are under monetisation.

Marginal fields were allocated to ONGC before the New Exploration Licensing Policy and they have the capacity to produce less than 10,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Many of these are located far from the major oil-producing fields on the western seaboard of India and remote locations in Assam.

According to available data, ONGC's 96 marginal fields hold 200 million tonnes of oil and 120 billion cubic metres of gas. Marginal fields have low oil and gas reserves, which are economically viable when produced with low capital cost and overheads.

An ONGC source said that the company plans to spend Rs 1,000 crore per field for development; however, this will vary according to the size of the field.

Some of the offshore marginal fields would be developed by ONGC as it already has the infrastructure. Onshore fields could be sublet to other oil companies, the source added.

Sources also expressed concern over the higher sulphur content in the crude oil from some of the marginal fields that could corrode sub-sea pipelines.

ONGC recently entered into a service contract for the development of three offshore marginal fields with the consortium of Prize Petroleum Company Ltd (Prize), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Trenergy (Malaysia).

The consortium was awarded the contract through an international competitive bid for the development of the marginal fields under Cluster-7 (B-192, B-45 and WO-24) in south-west Mumbai High.

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