Huge 'upside' at KG-DWN-98/2, says ONGC
With some luck ONGC will be allowed to continue exploring at KG-DWN-98/2 on the east coast.
PETROWATCH learns oil ministry officials are enthusiastic about a request from ONGC basin manager G. Karuppuswamy to DGH director general RN Choubey on January 13 for permission to continue drilling exploration wells for two more years, even though the exploration phase ended on December 29, 2013.
“ONGC’s understanding of this block is much better now," says a senior ministry source. "We should allow them to continue drilling.
From data submitted by ONGC it is evident the block holds substantial upside that can be established by drilling further appraisal wells at the discovered fields. New areas can also be discovered.
” Block KG-DWN-98/2 is divided into the Southern Discovery Area (SDA) and the Northern Discovery Area (NDA). ONGC submitted a Declaration of Commerciality (DoC) on December 26, 2013 for seven discoveries: Padmawati, Kanakadurga, D, E, U, and A in the NDA region and ultra deepsea discovery UD-1 in the SDA region.
“Reviewing the DoC and Field Development Plan (FDP) takes between 18 months and two years,” adds Karuppuswamy. ONGC wants to use this time to probe several established and new prospects, including an Eocene prospect at location J-AA and other sites in the Miocene and Mesozoic formations.
ONGC has increased its estimate of in-place reserves to 267m tonnes of oil equivalent from 32.5m under Cairn in 2005.
