ONGC to invest $150 million in 3 new offshore blocks in Myanmar

Mumbai: Exploration major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation will invest around $150 million over the next seven years to explore three new offshore blocks in Myanmar, the company said in a statement.

Myanmar has awarded 100 per cent participating interest in the AD-2, AD-3 and AD-9 blocks, off the country''s Arakan coast, to ONGC''s overseas arm ONGC Videsh Ltd.

"The blocks have been awarded to OVL on the basis of mutual understanding and cooperation between India and Myanmar in the hydrocarbon sector," OVL said. It added the exploration period spread over four phases extends to 5 years for AD2 and 7 years for AD3 and AD9. Upon discovery of oil and gas, development and production operations shall spread over a period of 20 years.

The investment of OVL, on account of minimum work commitment in the blocks for all phases taken together, is slated to be about $150 million, the release said.

All three blocks have good hydrocarbon potential as they are close to the A-1 and A-3 shallow water blocks where ONGC Videsh owns 20 per cent of each. India gas transmission company GAIL (India) Ltd also holds 10 per cent in each the two fields.

The A-1 and A-3 fields have 4.53 trillion cubic feet (TCF) to 7.74 TCF of recoverable reserves, according to US-based international certification agency, Gaffney, Cline & Associates.

South Korea''s Daewoo International Corp operates the two blocks with a 60 per cent stake, and Korea Gas Corp (KOGAS) owns the remaining 10 per cent.

Myanmar has at least 90 TCF of gas reserves and 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserves in 19 onshore and three major offshore fields.