ONGC strike more natural gas in Tripura

Agartala, June 8: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has struck an estimated production of 1,00,000 million cubic metres of gas in acreage at Kunjaban in north Agartala.

ONGC officials here today said that further testing was in progress and potential of the gas field was being assessed. This would add to the tally of gas fields in Tripura and help in meeting additional gas requirements for 750-MW Palatana Power Project in South Tripura.

The new resource would help the Paltana Power Project to meet its additional demand for gas. The Paltana Power Project would need around 4.5 million cubic metres gas a day, the officials stated.

''The flow rate of oil is highest among the discoveries in NE and oil is of very good quality sweet crude with API gravity of 33 and pour point 300 degrees Celsius,'' a senior ONGC executive said.

He said initial survey opens up new prospects for further exploration in other areas of Lakwa, Lakhmani and Rudrasagar in the region.

Kunjaban, has flowed gas at the rate of 2,30,000 cubic metres a day through a 10 mm pipe.

''Kunjaban is the fourth hydrocarbon strike in the Asom-Arakan basin in recent weeks following Kalyanpur, Disangmukh and Panidihing in the Asom Shelf.

The company estimates its in-place reserves in the region at 50 billion cubic metres and expects to pump up by 60 per cent.

Presently, it produces 4.3 million cubic metres a day from the fields in Tripura, which raises 6 million cubic metres a day.

ONGC have found new oil prospects at Panidihing in Asom with an estimated production of 516 barrels a day while the ongoing exploration at Disangmukh, currently yields 1,421 barrels of crude oil per day, he informed.

The ONGC had explored five oil and gas reserves in the eastern offshore and NE, the most significant being a gas discovery in the Mahanadi basin block where 3-4 Trillion cubic feet of gas reserves have already been established.

''ONGC has made second discovery in Mahanadi basin in MN-DWN-98/3 block in east coast of India about 60-km off Paradeep coast (in Orissa),'' a company release stated.

UNI