The Hindu Business Line : GSPC drills second well in Ahmedabad

Encouraged with its latest discovery of gas and oil two days ago on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd (GSPC) today started drilling a second well in the vicinity of the first well (SE-1) near Sanand town to ascertain the exact potential of hydrocarbons in this block, as the blue-chip company's geologists predicted a "realistic" stock of 10 billion cubic feet (BCF).

Confirming the latest find, the GSPC Managing Director, Mr D. J. Pandian, told Business Line here that the second well, nicknamed SE-1A (Sanand East-1A), would enable the State Government undertaking to assess the total reserve potential in this region. "Our available data suggest that the oil and gas reservoir extends to an area of one-and-a-half kilometre. We have also informed the Directorate-General of Hydrocarbons in New Delhi today."

Meanwhile, sources said the Rs 1,200-crore blue-chip company may be listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange next year.

Company sources said the average or potential reserves (P-50) of oil and gas in the Sanand-Bopal block of Ahmedabad are estimated to be in the range of 20 million barrels (oil-in-place) and 21 BCF, respectively.

The maximum oil reserve could be 40.5 million barrels and the maximum gas 21.9 BCF. Of this, only 20 per cent of the reserves are "recoverable"— that is, 15,000 standard cubic metres of gas and 60 barrels of oil per day. In other words, the gas find was more important than oil.

On June 7, GSPC had announced discovery of 20 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas in two of the four wells it drilled in the Deen Dayal Field in the Krishna-Godavari Basin on the eastern coast in Andhra Pradesh, off the Bay of Bengal.

It had also explored gas bulk at the rate of 4.8 million standard cubic feet per day and oil bulk of 862 barrels per day from one more well in K-G Basin on June 2 this year. These were in addition to the 20 TCF gas explored from this block a year ago, in June 2005.

The latest finds of GSPC in Gujarat itself are, however, right on the periphery of Ahmedabad, in the Bopal area under the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority and the Krishna Heart Hospital is said to be sitting on huge gas reserves.

"Success is all the way for GSPC from Krishna-Godavari to Krishna Heart (Hospital)," Mr Pandian said. He said the latest oil and gas find could commercially fetch Gujarat Rs 3 lakh per day for more than five years.

"In particular, the proximity of the gas find next to Ahmedabad city makes its monetising all the more easier for us for both domestic and industrial purposes," Mr Pandian said.

New discovery

The latest discovery was made at a depth of nearly 1,830 metres of vertical drilling and about 200 metres of a further diagonal drilling, at a cost of $11,000 per day. GSPC spent nearly Rs 8 crore on this process and hoped to recover the drilling cost, paid to a Dubai-based rig firm, Dalma Energy, as soon as production starts.

Earlier, GSPC had struck oil in four wells and gas in one well in Dholka town of Ahmedabad district. From one of these oil wells, commercial production was started recently, to the tune of about 350 barrels a day.

Meanwhile, sources said the entire Ahmedabad city would be supplied piped gas right into the kitchen in the next two years, as in Surat, Bharuch and Vadodara cities.

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