Seek foreign partners to raise output from Mumbai High, B&S fields: Govt to ONGC

The Centre had previously directed ONGC to bid out small and marginal fields to boost domestic production, and has consistently been nudging ONGC to seek out foreign players as partners to boost production from domestic oil and gas fields.

The official noted, however, that the letter from Nath — who is also a government nominated director of ONGC — was not a directive from the government but part of discussions to boost production.

The petroleum Ministry has asked state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to consider offering up to a 60 per cent stake and operating rights over parts of key Mumbai High and Bassein and Satellites (B&S) oil and gas producing fields to foreign companies to boost production. The Centre had previously directed ONGC to bid out small and marginal fields to boost domestic production, and has consistently been nudging ONGC to seek out foreign players as partners to boost production from domestic oil and gas fields.

A senior government official told The Indian Express that Amar Nath, Additional Secretary in charge of Exploration Division at the Petroleum Ministry, had written to ONGC asking it to consider bidding out parts of the Mumbai High and B&S oil and gas fields, which are the largest crude oil and natural gas fields in the country, respectively.

The proposal aims to boost crude oil and natural gas recovery form the maturing fields. ONGC’s consolidated crude oil output has fallen from 25.5 million metric tonnes (MMT) in FY17 to 22.5 MMT in FY21, while its natural gas production has fallen to 22.8 billion cubic metres (BCM) from a peak of 25.8 BCM in FY19.

Story continues below this ad

Read | Why India needs a Ministry of Energy

“There are a lot of areas including in those fields where you may find good reserves but they are difficult (to extract),” said a senior government official, noting that foreign players with the requisite technology and expertise to extract oil and gas from such fields could help boost production and recoveries from such fields.

The official added that the government was of the view that the total area under exploration with ONGC should be increased and that the company should partner with foreign companies that can offer technology to increase recovery from Indian fields.

The official noted, however, that the letter from Nath — who is also a government nominated director of ONGC — was not a directive from the government but part of discussions to boost production.

Government officials have said that both mature fields such as Mumbai High and major new discoveries such as ONGC’s KG-DWN-98/2 field off the coast of Andhra Pradesh could benefit from expertise of large private players in recovering reserves in ultra deepwater fields.

Story continues below this ad

The official said that the government had also directed to improve bidding terms for potential investors interested in bidding for its small and marginal fields.

ONGC had, in August, invited bids for 43 small fields with total reserves of 160 million tonnes of oil equivalent, but has received bids for only 12-13 fields thus far, according to the official.