ONGC Makes Consecutive Gas Discoveries in Mahanadi Basin Block

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has made two significant back-to-back natural gas discoveries in a Mahanadi basin deepwater block in the Bay of Bengal as its calculated game plan of venturing into high-risk deep water exploration starts yielding results.

The firm made the discoveries in the block MN-DWHP-2018/1, which it had won in the third round of auction under the open acreage licensing policy in 2019, two sources with direct knowledge of the development said.

Significantly, the discoveries have been made in an area, which previously was classified as a 'no-go' area because of national security interests.

The first discovery, named Uktal, is in 714 metres of water depth and flowed more than 3 lakhs cubic metres per day of gas during initial testing, they said, adding the other find is at a water depth of 1,110 metres.

ONGC has notified the discoveries to upstream regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) and is now doing pool size and commercial viability assessments, they said.