Infra push: Green nod for ONGC's Rs 53,000 cr KG Basin project

ONGC has received environmental clearance for drilling 45 development wells and other related infrastructure costing over Rs 53,000 crore in the Krishna-Godavari basin in Andhra Pradesh.
"Last week, we gave clearance to ONGC for the project of drilling 45 development wells at Block KG-DWN-98/2, KG offshore. The environmental clearance...
has been given subject to specific and general conditions," a senior Environment Ministry official was quoted as telling a news agency.
The proposed development drilling and subsequent development of fields would lead to production of 51.33 billion cubic meters of gas over a period of 16 years and 26.71 million cubic meters of oil in 12 years.
ONGC been asked to obtain CRZ (coastal regulation zone) clearance, approval from Directorate General of Shipping for commencement of drilling, and comply with all recommendations and conditions specified by Andhra Pradesh Coastal Zone Management Authority.
ONGC will have to use high efficiency diesel generator sets, adopt conservation measures to protect marine life and develop waste minimisation plan, among others.
ONGC's proposal is to drill 45 development wells, set up a FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) facility, offshore fixed platform, subsea production systems and subsea pipelines connecting landfall point to existing onshore terminal for custody transfer to GAIL.
The big infra project will be implemented in the northern discovery area of NELP-I offshore block KG-DW N-98/2 that covers an area of 7,294.6 sq km and is located within 25-80 km from nearest coast.
The block is divided into Northern Discovery Area (NDA) having deep waters with depth of up to 1,800 meters and the other one is Southern Discovery Area (SDA) which has ultra-deep waters having depth of up to 3,100 meters.
NDA has two clusters -- Cluster 1 predominately has gas and Cluster 2 mixture of oil and gas.
Indian most valuable PSU under the administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, is India's largest oil and gas exploration and production company. It produces around 70 per cent of India's crude oil (equivalent to around 25 percent of the country's total demand) and around 60 percent of its natural gas. With a market capitalisation of over Rs 2 trillion, it is one of India's most valuable publicly-traded companies.
ONGC is ranked as the top energy company in India, fifth in Asia and 21st globally as per Platts Top 250 Global Energy Rankings; Maintains place as world's third ranked E&P Company in the list.