ONGC steps up Meshana drilling campaign plan

After a two-year delay, ONGC has scheduled the first public hearing for its planned 406-well development drilling campaign at the Mehsana asset.

ONGC plans to hold the hearing on January 17 at 11am at Langhnaj village in Mehsana. Three other public hearings will also be organised at Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Patan end-January and February.

"The January 17 public hearing is only for the Mehsana part of the project," a Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) source tells us. "Hearing dates for other parts of the project will be announced soon."

An ONGC source adds it expects to begin drilling by May 2020 "after all approvals are in place" and to complete the campaign over six years by 2026 across 40 Mining Lease (ML) areas at the Mehsana asset spread across Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Mehsana and Patan in an area covering 1114-sq km. Seventy-five wells will be drilled in the first year and another 63 in the second year; the third year will see 60 wells drilled and the maximum number of 80 wells will be drilled in the fourth year.

ONGC will drill 68 wells in year-five and another 60 in the final sixth year. All 406 wells will be drilled to 1600 metres TD.

"The aim of this programme is to arrest declining production," says ONGC, which expects incremental production of 13.6m tonnes oil from the campaign.