The Hindu Business Line : Reliance, ONGC may get ‘rig holiday’

The Union Petroleum Ministry could extend the exploration deadlines of Reliance Industries Ltd and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation due to delays in hiring drilling equipment and rigs, said Mr M.S. Srinivasan, Union Petroleum Secretary.

He was talking to reporters at an industry function on Tuesday.

Mr Srinivisan said that the two companies were facing delays in their drilling programme due to rig shortage.

The ‘rig holiday’ may be decided in two to three weeks and it could last as long as two years, he said. He added that the growth for oil services in India would be 25 per cent over the next eight years, mostly driven by the private sector.

Cairn India pipeline

Mr Srinivisan also said that the Government would consider in two weeks if Cairn India would be allowed to recover the cost of laying a pipeline from its crude oil sales.

An empowered group of secretaries has considered the issue. “The decision will come very shortly. In the next two weeks,” he said.

Cairn has offered to lay the 600 km pipeline from its Mangala oil field in Rajasthan to Salaya in Gujarat after the Union Government’s plans to build the pipeline was delayed.

ONGC marginal fields

Also addressing the media, Mr R.S. Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director of ONGC, said that the company was keen to monetise its 18 marginal fields along with private players.

The company has 62 marginal fields, of which 42 have already been monetised, he said.

Mr Sharma said that the company’s gas fields in the Krishna Godavari basin was estimated to hold gas reserves of up to 6.76 trillion cubic feet. ONGC has submitted the appraisal plan to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons and is expecting an approval shortly, he said.