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Kuthalam, TN, May 11: In a technology breakthrough, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) has launched India’s first pilot project on helium extraction, off the Cauvery basin at Kuthalam in Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu on Sunday.
Helium is a critical gas used in a wide range of applications, including in nuclear reactors, space fuel, satellites and medical devices. The country imports 100% of its requirement from the US.
“This is the technology breakthrough of ONGC in association with Saha Institute of Nuclear Science and Department of Science & Technology, and this will take India in the global map of ‘strategic gas’ development on the lines of the US and other countries,” said R S Sharma, ONGC’s chairman & managing director, who launched the project.
Addressing a gathering at the plant site, Sharma said: “This is the pilot project and will not be of commercial use now. We need richer and continued gas availability to make it commercially viable.’’
The company is also looking at places such as Rajasthan and Bombay to identify and develop helium. However, all depends on the availability of richer gas, he said. According to SINP director Bikash Sinha, though India imports only 180,000 cubic metres of helium, worth Rs 20 crore, a year, it is a strategic gas as important as uranium or thorium. Mr Sinha said in India, most producing gas fields are in geologically younger formation, younger than 60 million years, and have little or no helium. However, since Kuthalam is the cretaceous age gas field, it contains 0.05% of helium.
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