ONGC to pump Rs8554 crore into two marginal oilfields

The state-owned exploration giant Oil and Natural Gas Corporation will invest Rs8,554 crore in producing crude oil from two clusters of marginal fields in the Western Offshore by 2012.

The board of the state-run firm today approved developing the B-22 cluster and B-193 cluster at an estimated cost of Rs8,554.26 crore, with a foreign exchange component of $1.697 billion, a company release in New Delhi said.

"The idea of combining two projects by way of offloading the process requirement and related facilities, erstwhile considered to be taken up separately, would amount to a savings of about $133 million," it said.

The investment would help produce 10 million tonnes of oil and 11.5 billion cubic metres of gas over a 15 year period. "While the gas production will commence by 2011, oil production is to begin by 2012," the statement said.

The board of ONGC also approved procurement of second generation stimulation vessel equipped with state-of-the-art technology for Mumbai offshore at an estimated cost of Rs764.1 crore.

"The new stimulation vessel will increase the productivity of oil and gas wells by removing the drilling induced damage, increasing the effective well bore radius and changing the flow regime into the well bore," ONGC said.