By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 20 Dec: Bolstering efforts to meet one of the vital essentials, the energy need for AtmaNirbhar Bharat, Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel dedicated the Bengal Basin, the 8th producing basin of India, to the nation today at Asokenagar, West Bengal.
ONGC took a major step by commencing oil production from the well, Asokenagar-1, Bengal Basin in 24 Paragana district. The well was completed as an oil producer under Early-Monetisation Plan issued by Government of India. This makes ONGC having discovered and put to production seven out of the eight producing basins of India covering 83 percent of established oil and gas reserves.
Dharmendra Pradhan, while dedicating the Asokenagar discovery to the nation, said that it would enhance India’s energy security. He stated that the discovery would definitely add to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clarion call for reducing oil import dependence.
He congratulated ONGC and said that with this discovery, around seven decades of relentless endeavours by scientists and engineers of India have borne fruit, giving a new hope for robust development of West Bengal. Bengal Basin finally looks set to find a place on the oil and gas map of the world.
He said the Indian government is committed to fully supporting ONGC to make this a turning point in its effort to bring more oil and gas from subsurface of West Bengal. The well Asokenagar-1 has heralded the end of painstaking search for hydrocarbons in the region by ONGC, sending its first hydrocarbon consignment produced during well testing to IOCL’s Haldia Oil Refinery earlier on 5 November.
Eager to script more success stories in the newly awarded OALP acreages in the Bengal Basin, ONGC has already set aside a sling of fresh geoscientific activities. These comprise appraisal programme of Asokenagar discovery for an area of about 739 sq. km. including 3D seismic, Low Frequency Passive Seismic (LFPS) Survey and drilling of two wells, besides acquiring roughly 1300 LKM of 2D, 2900 SKM of 3D and drilling of 13 wells in the next three years in the newly awarded acreages. Bengal Basin is spread across nearly 1.22 lakh square kilometres, with nearly two-third of it falling under the waters of the Bay of Bengal. Till now, ONGC has invested Rs 3361 Crore to exploring hydrocarbon in the Bengal Basin. Rs 425 Crore will be spent on exploration activities in the basin in the coming two years.
Pradhan was accompanied by Jyotirmay Singh Mahato, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Shashi Shanker, CMD, ONGC, and Directors of ONGC during the event held at the production site of Asokenagar, around 50 kms from Kolkata. Pradhan commenced the formal production of oil by switching on the Sucker Rod Pump (SRP) amidst a select gathering of senior officials, following Covid protocols.
