India’s top oil & gas producer ONGC plans to add around 100,000 sq km of new exploration area annually to take the total exploratory acreage to 500,000 sq km by 2024-25.
Addressing the shareholders in the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) on Monday, ONGC’s acting chairman and managing director Alka Mittal said, “Your company has launched a very ambitious exploration programme under which it plans to increase the exploratory acreage to 5 lakh sq km by 2024-25 with an addition of around one lakh sq km of new exploration area annually.”
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ONGC’s current exploratory acreage stands at 170,000 sq km. Mittal said the company plans to forge new partnerships and collaborations in exploration and production activities. The company has signed an initial pact with ExxonMobil, Aramco and Equinor. ONGC is currently implementing 21 major projects, each costing over Rs 100 crore. The total investment in these projects is around Rs 60,000 crore and envisaged oil and gas gain of about 97 million tonne of oil equivalent.
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During FY22, ONGC’s crude oil production, including share of production from joint ventures, was 21.7 million tonne (mt) while natural gas production was 21.68 billion cubic metres. Production of value-added products was 3.09 mt.