ONGC steps up energy production from a new Well in KG Basin

ONGC's new milestone: The national flagship oil and gas company, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has crossed a significant milestone in its deep-sea exploration history by spudding a well in the Krishna Godavari, KG basin, Bay of Bengal. This is expected to boost India's crude oil and natural gas production and support the Indian goal.

ONGC announced the commencement of production from its fifth oil well in KG-DWN-98/2 (KG-D5) on Sunday. This came after the company started oil production in January from the same block. The crude oil produced is processed into products such as petrol and diesel. However, the current production levels from the new well were not disclosed by the company.

Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri called the development a "major milestone" in India's journey towards energy self-sufficiency. In a post on X, he pointed out that the gas had successfully flowed from an offshore well through a newly installed 20-inch subsea pipeline to an FPSO vessel in the KG basin.
 

Located 35 kilometres off Andhra Pradesh in water depths ranging from 300 meters to 3,200 meters, the KG-D5 block is adjacent to the Reliance Industries' KG-D6 block. In the KG-D5 block area, there are multiple discoveries, which have been bunched into clusters. Cluster-2 is the first to commence production. The COVID-19 pandemic deferred the programme, but oil production from Cluster-2 was eventually released in January 2024. ONGC initiated production in January 2024.had initially estimated when production started this year that the KG-D5 block would touch a peak output of 45,000 barrels of oil per day and more than 10 million standard cubic meters per day of natural gas. The gas will be used to make fertilizers, generate electricity, and also turn into compressed natural gas as fuel.

In the latest investor call, ONGC's director of finance, Vivek Tongaonkar, explained that the company had produced 12,000 barrels of oil per day and 0.4 million standard cubic metres per day of gas from the eastern offshore segment of its KG-D5 block, coming in from some four wells. The fifth was to be opened in August, and peak production levels were to be firmed up in the second half. Gas output is likely to touch 6 mmscmd by March 2025.