ONGC Board OKs $1.56 billion oil, gas investment

• IBTimes RSS
• Print
• E-Mail
• digg
• Del.icio.us

The proposals were cleared at a company board meeting held on Tuesday, ONGC said in a statement.

ONGC will spend Rs. 18.17 billion on infrastructure that will enable it to raise gas output from fields in the country's northeast to 4.5 million cubic metres a day from the current 3 mmscmd.

That gas will be used as feedstock for a planned 740 megawatt power plant in Tripura state, in which ONGC will invest Rs. 5.76 billion for a 50 percent stake.

The power project, to be set up by ONGC Tripura Power Co. Ltd., with a debt-equity ratio of 70:30, will be commissioned by 2010 at an overall investment of Rs. 38.44 billion.

ONGC will also be investing Rs. 3.55 billion in the construction of seven pipelines in the Mumbai High (North) oil and gas fields, where a fire destroyed a large platform in July 2005 and cut production.

"This is expected to be completed with the upcoming MHN complex in Mumbai High (North) by April 2010," it said.

For the development of its marginal fields in the western offshore, popularly known as C-Series, the ONGC board has approved an additional investment of Rs. 7.95 billion, taking the final spending figure to Rs. 39.9 billion.

"The project is under implementation for exploitation of 15.14 billion cubic metres of gas and 6.13 cubic metres of condensate from the marginal fields in Arabian Sea," said the statement. The project is expected to be completed by 2009.