ONGC awaits green nod to drill five blocks off TN

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), country’s largest central public sector enterprise (CPSE) in terms of market capitalisation, is awaiting green nod from the ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) to start exploratory drilling work at five oil blocks allotted to the Navaratna company off Tamil Nadu.

The blocks includes those allotted to the hydrocarbon major under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) and Petroleum Exploration Licenses (PEL).

Meanwhile, Gas Authority of India (Gail) is also awaiting MoEF’s green signal to start drilling in its Cauvery Basin block allocated to the company by the government way back in 2005.

According to information available with FE, ONGC has submitted its application to the MoEF to start exploratory drilling under the Nelp IV bidding round and a block allotted under the PEL route early last month.

The ministry had said that the proposals would be considered for issuing the terms of reference (ToR) by the environment assessment committee (EAC) ?meeting as per the chronological order of the receipt?. Both the blocks allotted under the PEL and Nelp route are located off the coast of Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu.

Similarly, the ministry is also evaluating the proposed exploratory drilling in Nelp VII Block in Palar Basin off the coast of Tamil Nadu. The company had approached the ministry for the required clearances under its environmental impact assessment (EIA) study early last month.

The public sector hydrocarbon major had also knocked the MoEF doors to get its green signal to start drilling 125 additional wells in PEL off-shore block off the coast of Nagapattinam district in Tamil Nadu in January this year.

As per the company’s ?Strategic Vision 2001-2020?, ONGC is planning to have a capacity of 6.89 billion tonnes of ?in-place hydrocarbon reserves? with more than 300 discoveries of oil and gas. Out of this, the domestic reserves are expected to pump in 2.42 billion tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas, the company had earlier said.

The public sector pipeline company Gail had also approached the MoEF with similar proposals to start exploratory drilling at its on-shore oil and gas at Cauvery Basin at the Thiruvarur district in Tamil Nadu. Gail had approached the MoEF for its clearance late last year and the ministry would take a call on the application of the company on a priority basis.